A Meet-Cute Turns Malevolent in the Bittersweet Horror RomanceAttachment

Fans of horrorinspired by Jewish folkloreare having a gold rush clip between last month’sThe Offeringand now Attachment — the latter arriving on Shudder just in meter forValentine ’s Day . From Denmark - based movie maker Gabriel Bier Gislason , it ’s the tale of two women who fall quickly in love but shortly encounter some supernatural stumbling blocks .

Though it builds apprehensiveness laudably , with elusive shifts in tint and a affectionateness for shed in little things that seem at first like nothing — but soon add up to a whole lot of menacing something — adherence is really about its character reference . The couple at its core — Maja ( Josephine Park ) and Leah ( Game of Thrones ’ Ellie Kendrick)—don’t palpate like people we typically meet in repulsion picture , and they go a long way toward kick upstairs the film above its more familiar elements .

In fact , for its first several scenes , you might even bury Attachment is a repugnance movie . After a meet - cute in which the women clash in a Copenhagen library — Maja is a former nestling ’s TV star rushing to host a narration session ; Leah is a grad pupil visiting from London — it ’s cleared there are sparkle between them . Tea flex into wine turn into two bottle of wine , and their first date develop into something inscrutable when Leah impulsively determine to stretch out her trip . So far , so adorable , but there are steer that something dark is lurking beneath the romance . Maja , who ’s been adrift since the death of her female parent , has a sense of melancholy draped around her ; in Leah , she sees a potential new purpose in biography . Leah , meanwhile , is a noctambulist who sometimes spaces out even while she ’s awake , to the point that she short has a violent seizure that results in a serious leg combat injury . When Maja announce she ’ll accompany Leah when she retrovert to London , Leah just hesitates in accepting , even though we have a go at it by now her keep position : just one floor away from her very dying and over - protective mother .

Image: Shudder

Leah ’s faith is suggest at in the opening scenes — she turns down a Roger Bacon breakfast — but we do n’t get immersed in it until the couple make it in the Hasidic vicinity in London where she ’s lived her whole life . Her female parent , Chana ( Sofie Gråbøl ) , is delighted to see her girl but less thrilled with Maja , and that ’s not a homophobic reaction . alternatively , it ’s a phobia of an entirely unlike nature , as Maja start to learn once she ascertain all the talismans , candles , piles of salt , shelter charms , and other superstitious ephemeral scattered throughout Leah ’s apartment , which Chana oftentimes enters without pick apart until she ’s reminded not to .

Before long , Leah ’s singular spell get to get worse . Maja begins to care that her brand - new love may be in serious riskiness , a suspicion ignite when she meets Leah ’s Uncle Lev ( David Dencik ) , the brother of Leah ’s farseeing - absent Father-God , who knows an awful lot about Judaic mysticism and also seems to know an unspeakable lot about Leah and Chana that he ’s not comfortable share-out .

Still , Maia ’s condition as a community foreigner hardly total into play moot all of Attachment is so insular ; the drama is very versed and focalise on this small family unit . But Attachment does have a canny way of bind its role together through language . Though their relationship is frosty , Maja and Chana — who also happens to be Danish — can discourse using words Leah ca n’t see . Meanwhile , Lev and Chana can partake in secrets in Yiddish . The communication barrier resound the way Maja is blocked from know what ’s really pass on with Leah ; she essentially set off playing occult arts detective , examine to make up one’s mind if there ’s really danger underway or if she ’s just being clingy and paranoid . It ’s unmanageable to know who she can trust , and Attachment does a good business of keeping the audience in the dark , too .

Image: Shudder

Image: Shudder

While we root for Maja and Leah — and even , eventually , feel sympathy for the bristly Chana — Attachment alas does n’t succeed with its story as well as it does with its character . The movie build to a big ritual picture that ’s intemperately foreshadowed and sense predictable once it finally arrive ; even more unfortunately , Attachment is never very scary . alternatively of fright , it emphasise the complicated adherence between its characters . That ’s admirable , but you ca n’t avail but wish the flick had used all that emotional groundwork to springboard some well - earned monster - out bit too .

adhesion arrives on Shudder on February 9 .

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