You Won't Be Alone (Movie Review)

Folk horror appears to be having a modern-day renaissance, but I believe very much like our own history, it has been a steady partner all along. At times it can mask itself, but beneath the visage is the same critical, horrific, beautiful gaze waiting to be met. Whether it is set in the modern day or a journey back in time, there is a lesson to learn. In You Won’t Be Alone, Goran Stolevski makes his feature length directorial debut and takes the very notion of self-reflection in an almost literal sense with this tale of a witch searching for meaning in 19^th Century Macedonia.

You Won’t Be Alone is the story of a baby girl chosen by a witch, known widely around the land as Old Maid Maria (Anamaria Marinca), only for her mother (Kamka Tocinovski) to make a desperate plea that the disfigured hag wait until the girl’s sixteenth birthday for her to be taken from her mother’s side. In a move that she believes is in the best interest of baby Nevena, she hides and isolates the infant, but fate and Maria are patient and have a steady hand. As the bell tolls on the girl’s sixteenth birthday, she is taken, and we are given further insight into the witch’s ability to mask herself and take the form of other living things. The young girl is transformed and not only needs to navigate a world she has never known but must do so as a being that lives beyond the laws dictating mere mortals.

Nevena’s first encounter with a local villager ends in tragedy and thus begins the cycle that drives the film. As she takes on the physical appearance of a variety of people and animals, she learns more about herself, people, and the pulse of the Balkan Mountains in which they all reside. A variety of actors and actresses take up the role of the inquisitive witch, allowing the film to never feel stagnant. Out of the bunch, Noomi Rapace may be the most well-known. The curiosity that carries the film is almost childlike and may be its most moving characteristic. The film’s journey is Nevena’s. Whether she is understanding the daily habits of the villagers, experiencing life in the body of a woman or man, being touched by violence while committing her owns acts of savagery, or exploring her own desire for intimacy and sexuality, it is a wonder to behold. A simple moment of tranquility can change in an instant leaving behind only flesh and blood. Nevena’s newfound gift is fascinating as she jumps from person to person by inserting her own viscera into a cadaver, thus assuming the person’s outward appearance.

Stolevski’s approach allows the film to transcend what could have been a cut-and-dry doppelganger movie and instead it poetically shines a light on what it means to be human through the eyes of a curious foreigner/monster. Shot entirely in Serbia, the landscape reinforces the feeling that this is an Eastern European tale, and one that children may be told to frighten them into subservience. If you’re not good, Old Maid Maria will come take you and eat you! Along with Stolevski’s decision to shoot in the Balkans, the film’s spoken language is Macedonian. Now, I am the furthest thing from a language and dialect expert, but it was refreshing to hear something spoken that felt so foreign to my ears. Between that and the handheld camera work, it truly helped me lose myself in the tale, often feeling embedded in this rural cycle of violence and change. Matthew Chuang’s cinematography and Mark Bradshaw’s score shine in a working partnership that makes this tale of witches and humans feel like something more akin to a horror movie by way of Terrance Mallick. Think of it more as lyrical journey than a straightforward narrative. I haven’t felt so swept away by a score since Nicolas Brittel’s beautiful accompaniment danced across the screen in If Beale Street Could Talk.

You Won’t Be Alone doesn’t rewrite the books as far as folk history is concerned but frankly, it doesn’t need to for it to shine. Like watching a child grow and learn in a horrific time lapse, Nevena’s journey is one to which we can all relate. I certainly did not anticipate leaving the film feeling so moved that my only course of action was to enjoy a cup of coffee while watching the hustle and bustle of the early evening crowd. And that right there is its most special trait, the sense that beyond the tears, blood, and viscera, there is an inherent beauty to life. Sometimes we just need to be willing to look for it.