- Directed by Gabriel Bier Gislason
- Written by Gabriel Bier Gislason
- Stars David Dencik, Ellie Kendrick, Sofie Grabol
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 45 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBYIhO2hg34
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This is a really slow burn of simmering horror. The acting is excellent, the effects are minimal, and the script is well-written. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but we horror guys liked it quite a bit.
Synopsis
A woman dressed like an elf runs into a customer at a bookstore. The elf is late for work. She is the “Elf Princess Carla,” here to read a story to a bunch of children. There’s a mix-up with the books, and Maja ends up asking Leah to go out for a drink. Maja’s a former Danish actor who doesn’t work anymore except for occasional Elf gigs, and Leah is just working here temporarily. They talk for hours and end up kissing. Things escalate, and Maja learns that Leah walks in her sleep.
Leah is going home to her mother tomorrow and soon has to leave. She changes her mind and decides to extend her stay with Maja. For quite a while, Leah ignores phone calls from her mother, but then she starts having weird seizures. Maja accidentally breaks Leah’s leg while trying to keep her from hurting herself. Maja volunteers to go back to London with Leah.
Leah’s mother, Chana, is there waiting for them. She’s a cranky, overbearing, Jewish mother stereotype. She’s an odd woman, and Maja is a little confused by all the over-the-top Jewish stuff. Chana gives Maja an amethyst necklace for good luck.
In the middle of the night, Maja wakes up to find a candle burning in their bedroom so she blows it out. After she goes back to bed, it relights. In the morning, Chana wants to give Leah a massage and asks Maja to go for a walk or something.
Maja goes out and finds that she’s in a very Jewish neighborhood. She goes to a bookstore, and Lev, the man inside, says that her necklace is there to ward off demons. Meanwhile, Leah and her mother argue about soup. That night, the candle does its thing again, and Maja hears footsteps from somewhere.
Maja talks to Lev again, and he explains the Kabbalah to her. He talks about the Dybbuk, the tortured soul of someone who died. The Dybbuk possess the bodies of the living. The only way to get rid of one is to find out what it wants. It turns out that Lev is Leah’s uncle. Lev wants Chana to tell Maja the truth, but they argue about it in Jewish, so Maja has no idea what they’re talking about.
Maja asks Chana to show her around town, and the shopkeepers treat Chana strangely. Lev comes by with a book for Maja. He says that Chana is a troubled woman in a lot of pain. He thinks that maybe Maja will be able to help Chana. Not long after, Maja and Chana argue about—pretty much everything. Chana finds the book Lev brought and she tells Maja to stay away from him.
Maja goes into Chana’s apartment and finds all sorts of “magical” things in there. Could the old woman be doing spells and witchcraft? She hides and watches Chana cook something very strange in the kitchen. There’s also a magical diagram that she recognizes; Lev told her it was the blackest of magic.
The next morning, Maja tells Leah everything, and she believes all of it. Leah argues, “She’s not well, and she needs me!” Leah suggests that Maja should move out. Maja watches Chana break Leah’s leg even worse in one of her “massages.”
Maja goes to Lev, and he says Chana is “very, very dangerous.” He also advises her to just go home. Instead, Maja doubles down on trying to fit in—until Chana feeds her peanuts hidden in the chicken dinner, which Maja is allergic to. Chana says she doesn’t have any idea how the peanuts got in the food. Leah knows that’s not a normal part of the recipe, so it wasn’t an innocent accident, and is furious at her mother for trying to poison Maya. But we soon see that was Maja who put the peanuts in her own food, a move to turn Leah against Chana. Leah gets frustrated and removes her own protective amulet.
Leah and Maja move to Maja’s father’s country home. We also get flashbacks to Chana telling a small person or child to “Please wake up.” We’ve seen that several times by this point in the story.
That night, Leah has another seizure. Maja goes to meet Lev out in the woods. Maja tells him that something is wrong with Leah. Chana is there with him. They admit to Maja that the seizures aren’t epilepsy; it started when she was seven. Leah—no actually, a dybbuk, killed a little girl. This evil one has possessed Leah for many years. They never told Leah about it.
Meanwhile, an old woman goes to talk to Leah about her missing cat. Maja rushes home to find that Leah has combed her hair to a bald spot and just looks terrible. Maja finds the dead cat-woman’s body upstairs and Leah hides from her.
Lev comes in and “freezes” Leah. He says that Leah left home for too long, away from everyone and everything that kept her safe. He’s got a whole squad of devout men to help. Chana says that Leah had no memory of the Dybbuk, and she was always happy when it didn’t have under its control. If she’d been told about it, it would have ruined her personality and happiness, so they kept it from her.
Lev tells Leah, “This is our last resort. We have to prepare a Soul Devourer.” They’ve never tried this black magic ritual before. Once the Soul Devourer comes, it won’t leave until it gets one, so this is very dangerous. They start the ritual and wake Leah up. Lev insists that the demon tell him who he is and what he wants.
The demon gloats that it has won and bails – it knows the Soul Devourer is going to kill Leah in the circle. And if Leah leaves the circle empty of a sacrifice, it will kill them all. Chana lifts Leah out of the circle and switches places with her. Chana just switches off like a light bulb; she’s dead.
Leah and Maja pack up Leah’s stuff and get ready to leave town. As Maja packs, we see that she has some of Chana’s protection things in her bag… just in case.
Commentary
It starts out as a romantic fish-out-of-water story with Maja trying to fit in with a Jewish household, but things soon devolve into “The Exorcist.”
It’s super slow, and I was starting to wonder if it was going anywhere, but it eventually did. The acting here is really good all around, the special effects are minimal at best, but it’s all pretty interesting by the time you get to the end.