The filmmakers of “Goodnight Mommy” relentlessly, impressively savage downer of a film depict a devout, recently married woman who is spinning towards the edge of despair.
Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s “The Devil’s Bath,” though made by same directors as “Goodnight Mommy” and “The Lodge”, is not a horror movie. Its brooding trees in combination with wet leaves that are mixed up with muds, fish scales and menstrual blood could give an impression of witchcraft or devil worship. But it is worse than that; It’s more terrifying than anything one can imagine; based on true events this film uncovers a chapter in Austrian history so dark that it is like a black hole through which no light passes. Even if the storytelling is unbearably bleak, there is no way to ignore how expertly it has been done. The authorship of ‘the Devil’s Bath’ however builds around those who inhabit this world, for whom even one says: “to be gone from it.”
Anja Plaschg (who also supplies the soulful scraping strings and broken breathy folk hymns on the soundtrack under her musical moniker Soap & Skin) has only appeared in few feature films but she is unbelievably authentic as Agnes who starts out weaving berries and twigs into her bridal headdress. It is set in 1750s Upper Austria, Agnes lives in Styria but will have to marry Wolf (David Scheid) his fishing hamlet at nearby Lake Wolfgangsee lies some miles away.
Wolf has taken on debts to purchase them this hillside house where they will live together happily ever after although it does not seem as if Agnes shares his joy about their future homecoming. She takes it willingly from her brother when he gives her the severed finger of someone executed for slaying own child (as shown in sad prologue of the movie) so that she can use it as a talisman of fertility, then puts it under the blanket where they sleep. Here and there, religion seamlessly blends with horrid pagan practices.
It is not Wolf who consummates their marriage that night or the next one, but rather Agnes who fails to learn how things are done by watching her mother in law, Maria Hofstätter. However, little cruelties build up like when Wolf throws out Agnes’ precious collection of paper butterfly and dragonfly wings without even thinking about it. But this lasts only until a skillet was taken down from its hanging place on the wall by Agnes as requested by her mother-in-law; so quickly that she froze in fear when she heard footfalls outside children’s voices, her husband calling for his supper. Soon enough, though, she finds herself alone more often than before, staring at the wax doll of Jesus in church and murmuring prayers and Marian hymns while sitting near a decayed corpse. Did Agnes feel sorry for the dead woman or just wish all of her problems would be over?
Its austerity makes Franz and Fiala’s screenplay tense but with no surprise; if you get where this narrative is headed in no time it is still going to track down to seemingly bottomless despair straight from the bright gleam of wedding-night hope with no deviation whatsoever. However, Plaschg brings intensity into this soft-spoken character through an amazing performance that reflects the raw pain which constitutes each and every aspect of this well-crafted film very well.
Everything about “The Devil’s Bath” seems moistened with light except Martin Gschlacht’s amazing photography whose texture resembles Tanya Hausner’s costuming made from rough hemp-like material that has been inexpertly bound together using cords strings making them appear scratchy. The butterfly landing on Agnes’ face or the pair of hands executing someone such beautiful moments between bloodletting as painful as mythologies woven into garlands.
“The devil made me do it” said many of those who were deeply religious but mentally ill too. However, the motive for killing is not satanic but ecclesiastical loophole that says a murderer can be forgiven hence died in God’s grace while suicide on the other hand is condemned to perdition. It’s clear that these murders were neither mad nor possessed, since “suicide by proxy” was premeditated and such a term implies rationality and reason. But it also hints at something darkly interesting about the era when murdering someone else may have been the only free act that women could take in this oppressive society.
It is appalling to realize they are only 400 cases like this recorded throughout Austrian history according to one of closing titles notes. Yet even more so might be the millions of other women who lived exactly as they ought to completely miserable and put upon as ordered by their communities, husbands, and an indifferent deity.
For More Movies Visit Putlocker.