A surreal folk horror from fascinating genre newcomer Ali Abbasi.
One of the most intriguing new directors within the horror genre, after two films, Iranian-Danish filmmaker
Ali Abbasi seems to specialize in surreal dread and nightmarish folklore. In his debut film
Shelley, as in his second feature
Border (2018), there’s much more occurring in the film’s story than meets the eye, and motivations are rarely clear. Abbasi’s films don’t contain normal worlds where unexplainable events occur, but rather immensely supernatural worlds that, initially, its characters simply aren’t aware of yet. Abbasi sets his plots in and around looming forests, where the characters live in remote homes, far removed from interactions with modern society. It’s here that his characters seem to tap into or unleash ancient forms of elemental powers and dark magic.
Shelley follows a young maid named Elena, who begins working for a married couple at their secluded lakeside cabin, where the wife suffers from an undefined affliction. The couple, without child, convince Elena to serve as a surrogate for them, and it doesn’t take long for the pregnancy to go awry. After she begins suffering from disturbing visions, chronic pain, and demonic cravings, Elena becomes convinced that the child growing inside her is inhuman, and consuming her from the inside out.
Abbasi directs his debut with intuitive confidence, and although the story feels ambiguous and open-ended, it’s apparent that his vision for the film was fully formed and well executed (at least for me, his decision to play his cards close to the chest and take more of an avant-garde approach have kept me coming back for more, trying to discover hidden meanings).
Adding to this experimentalism, the filmmaker tampers with
aspect ratio in
Shelley as well. The movie starts nearly full-screen at the 1.85:1 ratio, but as Elena’s pregnancy begins its chilling descent into hell, those black bars sneakily - and effectively - close in and bite down, as if trapping the characters in the monstrous jaws of
Cerberus.
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