You Won't Be Alone Review - Passable Horror Flick
You Won't Be Alone is based on a delicate balancing act of opposites. Goran Stolevski's feature debut crosses the line between horror thriller and life-affirming coming-of-age drama, drawing on age-old folk customs to deliver an enthrallingly unique story. Its greatest asset is its ambition, which is also, ironically, its greatest fault. As strong as the film is when it is devoted to the particular of its people and environment, it asks far too many of the huge, unanswerable questions at the heart of the human condition, and the closer You Won't Be Alone gets to the universal, the more irritating its grip on the audience becomes.
Set in the Macedonian countryside in the nineteenth century, the story begins with a blunder, like every good fairy tale should. When a mother's house is invaded by Old Maid Maria (Anamaria Marinca), a witch (or "Wolf-Eateress") who has come to feed on her baby, she makes a desperate deal: if she spares the kid, Maria can claim her as the daughter she has always desired when the girl becomes 16. The witch agrees, but leaves the baby deafeningly deafeningly deafeningly deafeningly deafeningly deafeningly deafeningly deafeningly deafen A little flashback reveals that the woman's attempt to outsmart her mythological tormentor by rearing the girl in a sacred cave was in vain, and when the adolescent Nevena (Sara Klimoska) is ultimately let out, it's all for naught.
This prologue teases a plot that is more solidly based in horror than You Won't Be Alone, and viewers will come to link this feeling with the presence of Old Maid Maria. The elder witch is a complicated, tragic, and even lovable character, but she is still a monster, and if she had her way, this picture would be totally dark and cynical. Nevena, on the other hand, isn't convinced that the world is worth losing up on, and with Stolevski largely focused on her point of view, the camera imbues everything with a sense of innocent wonder.
Set in the Macedonian countryside in the nineteenth century, the story begins with a blunder, like every good fairy tale should. When a mother's house is invaded by Old Maid Maria (Anamaria Marinca), a witch (or "Wolf-Eateress") who has come to feed on her baby, she makes a desperate deal: if she spares the kid, Maria can claim her as the daughter she has always desired when the girl becomes 16. The witch agrees, but leaves the baby deafeningly deafeningly deafeningly deafeningly deafeningly deafeningly deafeningly deafeningly deafen A little flashback reveals that the woman's attempt to outsmart her mythological tormentor by rearing the girl in a sacred cave was in vain, and when the adolescent Nevena (Sara Klimoska) is ultimately let out, it's all for naught.
This prologue teases a plot that is more solidly based in horror than You Won't Be Alone, and viewers will come to link this feeling with the presence of Old Maid Maria. The elder witch is a complicated, tragic, and even lovable character, but she is still a monster, and if she had her way, this picture would be totally dark and cynical. Nevena, on the other hand, isn't convinced that the world is worth losing up on, and with Stolevski largely focused on her point of view, the camera imbues everything with a sense of innocent wonder.