Review: Attachment
A beautifully orchestrated symphony of love (both romantic and familial), horror, and the inextricable link between the two.
What up, horror homies?!
This week, I’ll be reviewing a movie that blew me away: the horror/romance film Natten har Øjne (Attachment in English) by Danish director/writer Gabriel Bier Gislason.
Starring Josephine Park, Ellie Kendrick, David Dencik, and Sofie Gråbøl, this film is a beautifully orchestrated symphony of love (both romantic and familial), horror, and the inextricable link between the two.
I simply had to watch this one after it was recommended (from my last reviewed film, The Wind), and I saw the irresistible trailer.
I want to make sure and put this one in front of more eyes if I can. It’s truly excellent and probably my favorite horror film since watching The Babadook.
As always, I’ll start with the aspects of this film that didn’t work for me or, in the case of movies I really loved, things that might turn others off from this movie. I do this, largely for the sake of posterity and consistency as well as to be as non-biased as possible, as I believe that is a reviewer’s duty. That said, I have a much smaller list on the front end for this film, because most of it kicked absolute ass.
What Wasn’t for Me:
The only reason this movie wasn’t a 10/10 is that the ending was a bit predictable pretty early on. That and they killed a cat, though they had the dignity to do it off-screen and entirely through implication…but we all know it happened, and I simply must dock them a point for it. That said, for the ending, it still worked well for me…see the section after this :).
I went into this film knowing it was a romance/horror crossover, and that was a calculated risk on my part. As anyone who’s watched Fermented Fiction, listened to me on panels, or talked to me in person about this stuff knows, I’m not the biggest fan of romance, in general. I do believe it has a tendency, due to its broad appeal and relatability to the average human, to co-opt narratives that are otherwise functioning perfectly fine without it. I can make no such claim that this romance plot co-opts the narrative, as it is not a sub-plot, but the main plot. That said, the early bits of the movie (100% romance for the first 1/3 of the film, or so) were something I had to get through to get to the horror bits that I signed up for. If you’re like me and you’re coming in for the horror half of this romance/horror, just remember that the romance IS going to come first, and you’ll need to be along for that part of the ride.
This is a complex film that requires a second watch to catch all the subtleties of the writing. If you only watch it once, you probably miss a good chunk of detail, and you risk misrepresenting the characters as stereotypes or tropes, when really, they are extremely well-developed, extremely human representations of feminine presence on the screen. At least that’s my take, though I am irreperably male. Female readers, please correct me if you find this not to be the case in this film. I’m always willing to be educated :).
The other side of that previous point is the slow burn element of this story. If you’re someone who wants a “strong” hook that pulls you right into the action…this film refuses to do that. It takes its time. It goes at its own pace. It doesn’t care if you’re bored. It expects you to be entertained by the character development, by the romance, by the grounded, human stakes presented at the outset. If that’s not your cup of tea, you might have trouble sitting through to the action-heavy parts of this film, but they DO come.
Frankly, this last point isn’t even something that didn’t work for me. I love slow burns, but I could see it being detrimental to certain viewers, and I have literally nothing else bad to say about this film, so I’m putting this here as a content warning of sorts, haha. I can think of no better transition to what I loved about this film than my inability to put another con…so…
Some films just really hit all the key points for you, as a viewer, and this is one of those films for me. I loved nearly everything about it. Here are some of the key talking points on that front.
What Was Directly Up My Alley!
I have to start with both of the “cons” I mentioned above, as, in reality, they were both strong points in this movie’s favor. Firstly, I typically do not like romance-centric films, but in this instance, the romance played brilliantly as the motivating and driving factor for the narrative and the primary foundation on which our character-development was built. This is something most horror movies attempt to do (see any haunted house film with the “perfect family” at the beginning), but few of them achieve to this degree. The romance in this film is new, it’s fresh, it’s spontaneous, and therfore, intrinsically wrought with peril and danger and excitement, which plays very well into the later themes of the film and no less, to the title itself.
Secondly, I LOVE SLOW BURNS. It’s the best way to do horror and the only true way to scare horror fans, in my experience. You won’t get us lovers of the macabre with gore or common jumpscares…no. You must cultivate a deep empathy for the POV characters and thereby attach us to the film in a way that our severance from those characters, from any notions of justice and safety we hoped for, and from our own comfort zone, expansive as it can be as consumers of this genre—and then tear those things away from us in the most sinister, brutal, and tense way possible. This movie does that multiple times and STILL manages to deliver on the rules of a romantic premise, which is a hopeful future for the lovers in question. Highly impressive feat and a masterclass on writing.
Thirdly, this movie not only subverts our expectations but weaponizes them against us. Everything that looks like a typical trope in this film IS THAT, but is also something more underneath, and the reason we don’t see the twist of the blade coming is that we already think we know where the blade will be stabbing. But we dont, and when it ends up in our heart, we don’t see it coming, despite the fact that the movie gave us all the hints we needed to do so.
Fourth, this is simply a good horror film. It’s quite scary, very tense, and the terrifying aspects are subtly nestled beneath the psychological tug of war between a woman’s new, clearly devoted and honest partner and her own family. It’s a struggle everyone can relate to, and despite the raising of the stakes throughout this film, I never felt it lost that relatability. Even the insane actions of the characters towards the end feel like reasonably believable outcomes, given all the other surrounding circumstances, and that drives the horror home all the more effectively.
Finally, and only because I could ramble about this movie forever, but vastly prefer that you all just go watch it for yourselves, this movie has some tremendously well-timed moments of comedic relief. Another feat that is nearly impossible to execute well in a horror film without utterly cutting the tension and fear. I’ll officially be going in search of EVERYTHING ELSE Gabriel Bier Gislason has written. I’ll report back with what I find ;).
That’s it for this week, horror homies.
My rating: 9/10
This is officially the first 9/10 from Clay’s Horror Corner, and I cannot recommend this movie highly enough. If you love horror with a feminine touch, romance with the stakes, tension, and speculative elements of horror, or any combination of all those things, this film is definitely for you. Go watch it! ASAP! Then come at me in the comments and let me know what you think. I’d love to have a discussion about all this!
Until next time, thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next week with another horror review :).
BYYYYEEEEEEEE!!!!!