Director: Jennifer Kent
Notable cast: Aisling Franciosi, Sam Claflin, Baykali
Ganambarr, Damon Harriman
Jennifer Kent set the horror world aflame for a moment in
2014 with The Babadook, a movie that made a children’s book beyond scary
and made parenthood seem like the most real horror show in history. In the
intervening years, it’s grown into an LGBTQ+ icon movie, and seen a second life
in that symbolic way. No matter your take on it, the movie garnered an unusual
amount of attention for a small, foreign, indie horror film. In a similar way,
I do expect The Nightingale will have an unexpected and far reach,
though as the film is less metaphorical and more about our current culture
through a mirror darkly, I won’t even guess what that reach will entail. I
certainly feel like I know what the intended effect is, and by that measure The
Nightingale is an extremely effectively made film. It’s also one that’s
impossible to properly talk about without just talking about it, so although I
will make every effort to avoid spoiling many specific story beats, it would do
the film an equal disservice to completely avoid talking about the themes and
message present here.