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GWEN (2019)
Gwen poster

CAST
ELEANOR WORTHINGTIN-COX
RICHARD ELFYN
GWION GLYN
RICHARD HARRINGTON
KOBNA HOLDBROOK-SMITH
MARK LEWIS JONES
MAXINE PEAKE

WRITTEN BY
WILLIAM McGREGOR

PRODUCED BY
HILARY BEVAN JONES
TOM NASH

DIRECTED BY
WILLIAM McGREGOR

GENRE
DRAMA
HORROR
MYSTERY

RATED
AUS:NA
UK:15
USA:NOT RATED

RUNNING TIME
84 MIN

 

 

 

 

Gwen image

Atmospheric and chilling period horror that utilises its unique setting to efficient effect, Gwen also delves into the horror of man with an illuminating, relevant poise.

Setting is important to a lot of movies, yet even more so in the horror genre. The haunted house, the cabin in the woods, chambers of horror, fantastical worlds filled with demons and monsters...they are all characters in of themselves, playgrounds of evil that live and breathe and hold their own sinister intentions. 

In the increasingly popular genre of "folk horror", geography is vital. Gwen, the feature film debut of writer/director William McGregor, features a killer of a location: Snowdonia, a mountain region in Wales that harbours incredibly picturesque, hauntingly beautiful landscapes, that represents the beauty and mystery of creation in equal measure.  

Situated in the hills of Snowdonia during the 19th century is Gwen (Eleanor Worhtington-Cox), the teenage daughter of Elen (Maxine Peake), and older sister of Mari (Jodie Innes). With her father away at war, Gwen and her family must fend for themselves against sinister forces seen and unseen. The regional mining magnate (Mark Lewis Jones) breathes down their neck like a wolf circling their prey, threatening to (literally) tear their house down. Yet just as sinister is an unknown presence that haunts their mind and soul, with Elen especially afflicted by its increasingly sinister grip.

McGregor masterfully weaves in themes relevant and intimate into a folk horror chiller, in which fear and desperation conjure ups all kinds of demon. Utilising the foreboding air of its setting to represent the isolation that looms upon these characters like a dark shadow, McGregor successfully opts for a slow burn, skin crawling pace that breathtakingly differs from modern horror convention. 

Gwen is a film about feeling the pressure of a crushing weight, with the world of nature and the world of man unrelenting, unsympathetic, and unjust in their means to decimate the spirits of those "weaker" than them. It takes themes of poverty, patriarchy, capitalism and Darwinism, and blends it into a gothic horror sludge that fills the frame with steady, menacing malice that consumes everything whole. It is an utterly engrossing, hypnotic watch.

The burgeoning Worthington-Cox inhabits the title character with a quiet strength needed to battle forces destroying her family within and without, coupled with an impressive ability to portray goose bump breathless fear with natural skill and ability. Meanwhile, Peake is phenomenal as the mother struggling to put food on the table, while fending off the wolves barking at the door. It all culminates into a descent into madness that Peake plays with a palpable intensity that is frightening yet strangely sympathetic. 

In a time of jump-scare horror movie nonsense, Gwen delivers a creepy, visually arresting chiller that has a lingering aftertaste that is hard to shake long after the credits role. McGregor has delivered a film of impressive craft and story, a horror movie rich in theme and dripping in dread.

 

****

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