In a village in the mountains of Slovakia, superstition long resides. It seems to live everywhere. This, Šarlota knows, having been on the receiving end for much of her life. The scorn started when, as a child, Šarlota accidentally knocked her little sister off a cliff and, ashamed, fled for the city.
Two decades later, called to accept an inheritance from her mother, Šarlota (Natalia Germani, The Devil Conspiracy) returns, only to find everyone in town thinks she’s a witch. (Even if they didn’t, odds are she’d be persecuted anyway, just for her gender.)
Are they superstitious because they fear “the other”? Nightsiren seems to suggest as much. Then it goes one better by pointing back at the accusers, suggesting these monsters we live with are more worthy of blame. Šarlota and Mira (newcomer Eva Mores), the young woman who befriends her, learn this lesson over and over again. Both actresses, it’s worth nothing, inhabit their parts really well.
From Filthy filmmaker Tereza Nvotová, Nightsiren has a lot on its mind, little of which it keeps to itself, even if could loosen its grip on subtlety. Although its feminist themes might scare some potential viewers off, that’s their loss; this is folk horror through and through, what with such elements as scythes, snakes, goats and rituals involving flames.
Like all good folktales, it’s presented in chapters. The literary touch of Nvotová and co-writer Barbora Namerova is palpable, but that hardly means visuals go ignored. On the contrary, Nightsiren pulls off some stunners, most notably as Šarlota experiences a DayGlo-painted nightmare of a forest orgy. —Rod Lott