The Devil's Bath
Where to Watch The Devil's Bath
- Michael Heimgartner14 maart 20257/10 – A Devastating Portrait of Isolation The Devil’s Bath (2024) is not just a film—it’s an experience that weighs on you like a stone. Directed by the brilliant duo behind Goodnight Mommy, this Austrian period drama immerses the audience in the suffocating loneliness and despair of a woman trapped in the rigid expectations of the 18th century. The film is shot with a documentary-like realism, making the protagonist’s struggles feel painfully authentic. Every frame is carefully composed, capturing both the beauty of the era’s landscapes and the suffocating bleakness of its societal constraints. The dialogue, thick with Austrian dialect, adds to the immersion—though as a Swiss viewer, I found subtitles necessary to fully grasp it. This is not an easy film to watch. Themes of mental illness, isolation, and even violence against children make it deeply unsettling. The film’s slow, methodical pacing reinforces the protagonist’s crushing despair, mirroring her descent into hopelessness. In many ways, its oppressive tone and brutal inevitability reminded me of The Substance. While The Devil’s Bath is undoubtedly heavy, it also feels essential. Mental health struggles—especially among women in oppressive systems—are as relevant today as they were in the 18th century, yet they still receive too little attention. It’s not a film for casual viewing, but for those willing to engage with its weighty themes, it’s a deeply affecting piece of cinema.
- rg94001 november 2024I struggled mightily with this movie which moved at a glacial pace while struggling to maintain any sort of immediacy or tension. The opening scene is vivid and evocative, but unfortunately, the rest of the movie fails to live up to it. I do understand the point of the movie, which it kind of beats you over the head with by literally writing it out in an epilogue title card. I did find the way the opening scene links into the larger plot and this concept to be interesting, but the problem is that it only becomes relevant at the very end. Everything leading up to that is not connected to it, and instead, it tells the story of a woman in a suffocating marriage and her descent into depression. A worthy story, but one executed significantly better in a variety of other movies. The acting, cinematography, etc. are all adequate, but not noteworthy, so the movie fails to be entertaining even on a technical level. There is very little actual horror. Overall, I found it very bland and uninspiring, and even if the historical practice it wanted to explore is fascinating as a concept, by only really depicting it at the bookends of the movie, it fails to actually mine that concept for any depth either.
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The Devil's Bath was released on 8 maart 2024.
The Devil's Bath was directed by Severin Fiala, Veronika Franz.
The Devil's Bath has a runtime of 2 u, 1 m.
The Devil's Bath was produced by Georg Aschauer.
18e eeuws Oostenrijk. Dorpen omgeven door diepe bossen. Een vrouw wordt ter dood veroordeeld nadat ze een baby heeft vermoord. Agnes trouwt met haar geliefde en bereidt zich openhartig voor op een huwelijksleven. Kort daarna beginnen haar hoofd en hart zwaar te voelen. Dag na dag raakt ze steeds meer gevangen op een duister en eenzaam pad dat naar kwade gedachten leidt. Misschien niet alleen maar gedachten...
The key characters in The Devil's Bath are Agnes (Anja Plaschg), Mother-in-law Gänglin (Maria Hofstätter), Wolf (David Scheid).
The Devil's Bath is rated 16.
The Devil's Bath is a Drama, Historisch, Horror film.
The Devil's Bath has an audience rating of 6.2 out of 10.