You Won’t Be Alone

Director: Goran Stolevski
Writer: Goran Stolevski
Starring: ‎Sara Klimoska, Anamaria Marinca, Alice Englert, Noomi Rapace
Year: 2022
Duration: 108 mins
BBFC Certification: 15

Horror has always been one of the most flexible and adaptable of genres. Taking just the last few years as an example, we have seen films as disparate as Ari Aster’s folk nightmare Midsummer, Leigh Whannell’s adroit update of The Invisible Man, Ti West’s slasher call-back X, Rose Glass’ darkly tragic character study  St. Maud, along with Michael Myers’ seemingly perennial resurrections in the Halloween franchise – to name just a few.

Perhaps the newest sub-genre to emerge in horror over the last decade is the ‘elevated’ horror film, a term which will now most likely attract as much vitriol as it will praise. Spearheaed by the work of such directors such as Ari Aster and Robert Eggers, the term seeks to define horror films that have a deeper agenda than just trying to make you crap your pants or scream in terror; instead, they typically use horror as a means to explore deeper themes, such as grief, loss, trauma or race. When they work, as in Jordan Peel’s modern classic Get Out or Ari Aster’s deeply unsettling Hereditary, the results can be profound as well as terrifying. Yet there is also the danger that filmmakers can get so caught up in their metaphors and message that they forget to actually make a, you know, horror film.

You Won’t Be Alone, the debut feature from Macedonian-Australian director Goran Stolevski is certainly a movie that defies easy categorisation. Set in 19th Century Macedonia, You Won’t Be Alone begins with a 200 year old Witch (Anamaria Marinca), also known as a Wolf Eateress, placing a curse on a new born baby. The baby’s mother takes drastic action and forces her daughter, Nevena, to live in a religiously blessed cave in order to protect her from the Witch’s sinister clutches. When this protection fails once Nevena (Sara Klimoska) reaches puberty, she is forced to roam the local countryside with the Witch, learning her way of life and her dark relationship with nature. Yet Nevena yearns for freedom. Eventually cast off by the Witch, Nevena, now armed with a shape shifting ability, reintegrates herself into the local village community but it is not long before the Witch returns, determined to destroy the fragile peace and equilibrium that Nevena has gained.

What is most remarkable about You Won’t Be Alone, despite its subject matter,  is its adherence to a beautiful, naturalistic style of film making. Stolevski eschews what might be expected from a historical horror film about a witch. Gone are creepy music cues or dark, dramatic lighting. Instead, You Won’t Be Alone favours a style of filming that very feels more akin to the Dardenne Brothers or the work of master DoP Robbie Ryan than the creeping insidiousness of Robert Egger’s The Witch, with that film’s stylistic grey hues replaced with a shimmering, sun dappled beauty. In fact, for most the film, Stolevski doesn’t feel like he is even aiming to scare his audience at all, treating the Witch and her Ward drinking the blood of a dead rabbit, say, as if it were the most normal and natural thing in the world.

This naturalistic aesthetic bleeds into the film’s narrative. More slowly paced and observational than plot driven, You Won’t Be Alone gradually emerges to be a dark, mediative film in thrall to the darkness and beauty of nature and the natural landscape, as well as the light and shade of human relationships. If Terrance Malik ever decided to direct a horror, then it is doubtful that it would appear too dissimilar to Stolevski’s work here.

This sense of naturalism is equally enhanced by the utterly authentic rural historical setting and a collection of performances that are low key yet still keenly observed. Anamaria Marinca’s Witch feels bitterly malevolent while Sara Klimoska’s central performance anchors the film with a quiet yet powerful rebelliousness. Noomi Rapace, adding a second critically acclaimed horror film to her filmography after last year’s Lamb, and Alice Englert equally make quite the impact in smaller but nonetheless powerful roles.

For all his adherence to observational film making and naturalistic performances, this doesn’t mean that Stolevski avoids any semblance of darkness or dread in You Won’t Be Alone. There are frequent moments of body switching horror that feels like David Cronenberg has jumped on board to direct a remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but outside of these moments, Stolevski finds his darkness in almost casual moments of violence and pain. This is arguably You Won’t Be Alone’s masterstroke – by not attempting to dress up its horror with the visual and audio embellishments so common to the genre, he somehow magnifies what we are seeing by it’s very normality. Because it feels more real, it therefore feels more horrific and terrifying.

Not everyone will agree of course and there are certainly those who will be put off by  the film’s slow pace and deliberate opaqueness. There is certainly a lot to unpack here, from ideas about conformity, prejudice, loneliness and belonging, even (cue exasperated eye rolls or interested chin stroking) the human condition. This is certainly a horror film that aims to engage the mind rather than race the heart.

While it is more of a drama about a witch that an outright horror, You Won’t Be Alone is nevertheless a bold, unique, and at at times beautifully profound take on well worn tropes, taking familiar genre elements and presenting them in a manner that allows the darkness that resides within us and our communities speak for itself. It proves yet again that horror is one of the most malleable of genres; and that elevated horror, to no doubt some cries of disappointment, is perhaps not quite ready to be toppled from its pedestal just yet.

Film:

You Won’t Be Alone is available to rent on own in the UK from the 20th October.