3.5/5 or 7/10. A confident, beautifully made, but deliberately alienating film.
: The title is an Old High German word for "witch" or "female spirit".
To explore similar themes in global cinema, you can read about the evolution of regional folklore and societal fears in horror. Hagazussa
In 2017, Austrian filmmaker Lukas Feigelfeld channeled this historical dread into his feature directorial debut, Hagazussa: A Heathen's Curse . Set in the remote Austrian Alps during the 15th century, the movie tracks the profound psychological unraveling of Albrun, a solitary goat herder.
Composed by the drone-ambient duo . Deep, metallic whines, cello drones, and organic squelches. To explore similar themes in global cinema, you
However, Hagazussa is a far more radical and less forgiving work. Where The Witch has a conventional plot and character development, Hagazussa is a series of impressionistic, horrifying vignettes. With barely 50 lines of dialogue, it is an almost wordless exercise in dread, whereas The Witch uses its period-accurate language to build its world. Ultimately, if The Witch is a slow-burn folk tale, Hagazussa is a hypnotic, nightmarish tone poem that actively rejects narrative comfort in favor of pure, unadulterated atmosphere.
The film weaves together several complex themes, resisting a single, easy interpretation. Composed by the drone-ambient duo
However, the film deliberately refuses to confirm whether Albrun ever actually possessed any supernatural power. Feigelfeld has stated that he was interested in exploring the "thin line between ancient beliefs, magic and delusional psychosis". His goal was to portray a character struggling with a mental disorder in a time when any strange or unorthodox behavior was automatically assumed to be the work of the Devil. The viewer is left in a state of profound ambiguity, forced to question every bizarre and horrifying event: did a dark spirit possess Albrun, or did the trauma of a lifetime simply shatter her mind? The film offers no easy answers, and its power lies in that terrifying uncertainty.
Directed by Lukas Feigelfeld, this film is a cornerstone of the "folk horror" revival, often compared to Robert Eggers’ The Witch for its slow-burn atmospheric dread. Plot and Themes
[ CIVILIZATION ] [ THE LIMINAL BORDER ] [ THE UNTAMED WILD ] The Village / Agrarian Law ======> HAGAZUSSA (Hedge-Rider) ======> The Deep Forest / Spirits