10/20: Hagazussa

Fallen a few days behind, but whatcha gonna do. 

10/20

Today's horror was another slow burner, the German language film Hagazussa: A Heathen's Curse. Set in the 15th century, the movie follows a young girl who watches her mother die horrifically from disease. The mother seems to lose her faculties near the end, going so far as to abuse her daughter. Fast forward a few years to the daughter in adulthood with an infant daughter of her own; she has been shunned, labeled a witch by those in the surrounding area. This doesn't appear to be true until it kind of is, with the girl descending into some kind of demonic madness. Or is it the abuse brought upon her by those around her and the magic mushrooms she eats? Yeah, who knows. 

It was interesting watching this movie bumped up against The Blackcoat's Daughter: both are incredibly slow burns, but where The Blackcoat's Daughter fails to stick the payoff, Hagazuzza gets much closer to making the wait feel worth it. 

Hagazussa is dripping with dread (think The Witch, an obvious and at times bordering-on-ripoff influence on the film), content with letting each moment breath for long, drawn out periods. There's something almost beautiful in the terror, waiting for what is to come. That is to say until the final 10 minutes of the movie, which is disgusting and taboo to the point of being stomach turning; it sticks with you. 

That said, these drawn out moments sometimes are taken to the extreme, to the point where their frustrating. Some tightening up could cement this into the upper echelons of slow burning horror it wants to be. As it stands it is an expertly made, if somewhat derivative and excessively slow, gothic folktale. 

Still, a solid choice for fear on a chilly October night.   

7.5/10