You Won’t Be Alone (2022)
“Me the skin. They will bury it. But me the witch. They can’t.”
So, a couple of weeks ago, Morbius opened, which I wanted to see through morbid curiosity (pun intended), but Blake, my movie-going pal, did not. “Aw, c’mon, there is nothing else opening!” “I don’t believe you.” “Well, there’s a Macedonian film about witches…” “I’ll take it!”
So the only reason I saw this movie right away on opening weekend was because Blake wouldn’t be seen dead at Morbius (pun unintended that time), and I’m very glad I did, because who knows how long it will be in theatres, and this way maybe some of you will see it, too.
There is even a name actor in this Macedonian film about witches, Noomi Rapace. I was like, Noomi Rapace speaks Macedonian? Well, she was in Lamb and spoke Icelandic, I suppose she can do anything! Turns out it wasn’t an issue, but I am getting ahead of myself.
In an unnamed year of long ago, (the 19th century in the press notes, but it could be almost any time), a woman is taking care of her baby in her home, when suddenly there appears a naked woman covered in burn scars, the woman knows that she is a witch, or a Wolf Eateress, Old Maid Maria (Anamaria Marinca), and she has come to kill and drink the blood of her baby. She begs her to instead take her when she is sixteen and have her as a daughter to care for her, and Maria agrees.
The woman then hides the baby, Navena, in a cave, where she grows up entirely alone but for her mother visiting and whispering to her. Navena grows up not speaking, due to the hiding, though we hear her thoughts. But hiding or no, you cannot get out of a bargain with a witch, just ask any fairy tale, and when she is sixteen (and played by Sara Klimoska), Old Maid Maria comes and takes her.
She is entirely cruel to Navena, having no patience with her wonder at the world, and she turns her into a witch right away. Maria is a shape-shifter, she kills animals (or people), then tucks their innards under her skin and becomes them. It’s a very visceral kind of magic, but this is a difficult and bloody time to be alive and in this society.
Navena wonders what it is like to be human and have human relationships, because even when she was human, she never led a human life. She sees a woman (Noomi Rapace), give birth in a field and then immediately go back to work, and later sneaks into the village, curious to see the child. Noomi sees her with the baby and attacks her, and Navena accidentally kills her, then decides to shapeshift into her and take her life.
This is way easier said than done, because she has no idea how to act or what things like facial expressions mean, she cannot speak, and everyone thinks that giving birth broke her mind. The women are supportive of her, to a point, but the men are just awful, especially the man who is now her husband. This is not at all a good time or place to be a woman. And Old Maid Maria has a long memory, great patience, and is not done with her.
This is a fascinating, dreamlike film about humanity, kindness, love, cruelty, and revenge, with excellent performances all around, especially the way several people all play Navena, and all are recognizable to the audience as being the same person, which is no mean trick.
It is a horror film, in that it is about witches, and sometimes quite intensely bloody, but hardly conventional. I don’t suppose many will go to the Macedonian witch movie expecting House of 1000 Corpses, and if they do they will be sorely disappointed (or relieved, depending on how much they really wanted to see House of 1000 Corpses). Many are comparing it to Robert Eggers’ The VVitch, which is definitely a closer match, but I think You Won’t Be Alone is a genre unto itself, gore and poetry. If that sounds like something you might like, I invite you to check it out. It is definitely worth a visit to that world.
Kymm Zuckert is an actor/writer/native Angelino. When Kymm was a child, her parents would take her to see anything, which means that sometimes she will see a film today and say, “I saw that when I was eight, I don’t remember any of that inappropriate sex stuff!” Check out her entire 365 day blog @ https://365filmsin365days.movie.blog