Movie review «The Devil’s Bath» / Des Teufels Bad

On August 8, the mystical folk horror «The Devil’s Bath», which won the «Silver Bear» for Outstanding Artistic Contribution (Cinematography) at the February Berlinale and will be nominated for the next «Oscar» from Austria in the «Best International Film» category, started its Ukrainian release. In the review below, we explain why this film requires a certain amount of psychological stability from the viewer and whether it will be rewarded in the end. Minor spoiler — no.

«The Devil’s Bath» / Des Teufels Bad

Genre historical drama, folk horror
Directors Veronica Franz, Severin Fiala
Starring Anja Plaschg, Maria Hofstatter, David Shade, Natalia Baranova, Claudia Martini, Lucas Walcher
Premiere movie theaters
Year of issue 2024
Website IMDb

Upper Austria, 1750. A young, pious woman named Agnes marries a village fisherman named Wolf and moves with him to a secluded house in the middle of the forest. But what seemed to be the beginning of a new, happy life turns into a living hell for the suffering woman. Not only does Agnes constantly receive remarks from her unfriendly mother-in-law, but Wolf is unwilling to fulfill his marital duty. And the woman is literally obsessed with having a child.

Gradually, an unhappy family life, loneliness, the constant presence of her mother-in-law, the patriarchal system and the inability to have a child take a heavy toll on the psyche of the heroine, who is not ready for such trials. She withdraws more and more into herself, develops a deep depression, and loses the meaning of life. This eventually leads to tragic consequences.The plot of «The Devil’s Baths» is based on a historical study by Katie Stewart, which deals with the so-called «indirect suicide». This new type of crime was common in the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe. Those who were suicidal were afraid of eternal damnation, so they decided to kill themselves, then surrendered to the authorities and waited for execution. The criminals hoped that after repentance and confession, they would have a chance for salvation. This crime was committed mainly by women, and children were the victims, as evidenced by more than 400 historical documents that concerned only German-speaking regions.

At the initial stages, this folk horror may bring to mind the bizarre «Midsommar» Ari Aster — sunlight, unattractive faces in the frame, ritualistic actions, a carefully assembled wreath and a nagging premonition that all this will lead to something terrible are added. However, the sunny serenity of «The Devil’s Baths» quickly gives way to a hopeless fadedness, while Aster’s was exactly the opposite.

As for the content, you can find some points of contact here, if you like, but the story of the directorial duo Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala is not so much simpler as more down-to-earth and generally about something else. Where Aster had ominous pagan rituals, bright festive outfits, and something very unusual in the eyes of both the characters and the viewer, Franz and Fiala have Christian beliefs, completely unremarkable rags, and an unpretentious, understandable daily routine. This also significantly influenced the main character.

The latter reminded me of the long-suffering Blake from Gus Van Sant’s drama «The Last Days» (2005), which clearly had Kurt Cobain in mind. If you recall, the hero wandered around the forest in the same way, lost touch with reality, and then used a gun. But if in Van Sant’s painting the hero had long since crossed the point of no return and was simply preparing for the inevitable, then «Devil’s Bath» shows the entire path of the personality’s fading away, its fall into a psychological prison from which there is no other way out but to cease to exist.«The Devil’s Bath» — is a completely depressing, difficult to understand movie, and its hopelessness is much more frightening than any Hollywood demon or zombie. Although this is the term that can be used to characterize Agnes: she is — walking dead, who has no hope of «antivirus», no matter what bizarre procedures the local barber performs.

But there is also a flip side to this coin, namely, how much such a psychologically difficult, emotionally devastating movie is needed today by the Ukrainian audience, which is already under constant stress. It’s hard to imagine a person who would want to go to the cinema of their own free will to see this gloomy and slow-moving film. The film features severed fingers, severed heads, maggots, a goat’s throat being slit and then being cut upside down, the murder of a baby, and, most importantly, the lack of meaning in life.