By Peg Aloi

Two horror-adjacent films at this year’s Sundance Festival — Sorcery and Animalia — were strikingly beautiful.

Valentina Véliz Caileo in a scene from Sorcery. Photo: Sundance Institute.

There were some intriguing films exploring topics related to magic, witchcraft, the occult and the paranormal at this year’s Sundance festival. The fest even has a special “Midnight” roster of films for horror buffs. One film shown in this program that’s been getting plenty of hype was Talk to Me, an Australian paranormal film and feature debut by two brothers (Michael and Danny Philippou) who both worked on the crew of Jennifer Kent’s 2014 breakout Aussie horror flick The Babadook. The film got such positive responses that red-hot studio A24 (known for horror hits like Midsommar, Hereditary, The Witch, and Men) has already purchased it for distribution. Sadly, it was not available to me for viewing, despite being right up my alley. But I did see two other horror-adjacent films that were strikingly beautiful.

Sorcery is a film steeped in ancient Chilean folklore and location-specific culture. Director Christopher Murray co-wrote the screenplay with Pablo Paredes. The narrative takes place on the island of Chiloé in the late 19^th century, a time when it was being colonized by Europeans. Teenage Rosa (Valentina Véliz Caileo) works as a household servant in a large farmhouse overseeing a hilly farm. Her father works as a shepherd and laborer. The German employers seem civil enough: the woman of the house treats Rosa with polite kindness. But one day a mysterious ailment seems to cause most of the sheep to fall ill and then drop dead. Rosa and her father are blamed, in the belief that witchcraft must be behind the epidemic. The homeowner strikes out at Rosa in anger and her father is livid at the attack. To punish his insolence, the homeowner (Sebastian Hülk, seen recently in All Quiet on the Western Front, in a small but effective role) sets his dogs on Rosa’s father, who is killed.

Determined to avenge his death, Rosa leaves to trek through the wilderness; eventually she finds a mentor who will help her exact revenge. In a scenic valley, she meets Mateo (Daniel Antivilo), a gruff old man who has alliances with local practitioners of indigenous magic. Rosa leans their ways and finds herself tangling with a local magistrate who has overstayed his welcome and wants to leave the mountain village. The story draws, perhaps a little too much, on enigma and ambiguity; it’s not always clear how the various characters’ story arcs converge into a coherent plot. The naturalistic acting might contribute to the confusion; it gives Sorcery an earthy authenticity that, while appealing, tends to flatten the narrative at times. Still, the film is awash in enough mystical landscapes and moody impressionistic visuals to make an engaging, slightly haunting, viewing experience.

Oumaima Barid, in a scene from Animalia. Photo: Sundance Institute

Animalia is a stunning feature debut by Sofia Alaoui, a filmmaker whose short film So What If the Goats Die won the festival’s Grand Jury Prize in 2020. Set in Morocco, the story establishes a culture clash early on. Itto, a young beautiful woman who is heavily pregnant, helps prepare dinner in the richly-appointed home of her husband Amine’s family. Dressed in a fine silk pantsuit, Itto’s sleeves are dirtied while she is cutting chicken; her mother-in-law coldly tells her to go change for dinner. We learn that Itto comes from a poor working class Berber background,  and it’s clear she feels judged by the members of Amine’s wealthy family, for whom class and status are of primary importance. At first, Itto seems to be a somewhat restless young woman who is happy to live in such luxurious surroundings. The family takes a day trip and Itto takes the opportunity to stay at home, claiming she’s tired. She enjoys her time alone, relaxing with treats and television.

But when an unnamed emergency happens and results in roadblocks, Amine is unable to come and get Itto, who is left alone and vulnerable. The nature of the crisis is not clear. It may be meteorological in origin, but news stories are vague, and phone service all but shuts down. Trying to travel to join Amine’s family, Itto runs into a number of obstacles. She meets a dog who accompanies her briefly. She soon notices the dogs are all acting odd. Itto then meets up with Fouad (Fouad Oughaou) a young working class man, also of Berber origins, who she at first thinks is a driver she can pay to transport her. When Fouad refuses her money but still offers to help her, they form a tenuous bond, with Fouad questioning her rejection of her Berber upbringing. As the mysterious situation around the pair continues, Itto feels drawn to strangers who say cryptic but meaningful things and stare at her with kind curiosity. When strange weather and mysterious lights begin, the film’s visuals and sound turn dreamy. Various philosophical strangers seem calm in the midst of the mayhem. Are they possessed, perhaps by alien invaders? Or has Itto merely found herself among people who finally understand her?

Played by Oumaima Barid, Itto is a compelling character whose point of view is constantly being questioned as she is pulled into the plot’s maelstrom of unusual occurrences with no explanation. A world-disrupting emergency forces people of all classes and situations together to confront shared danger. In this sense, the film serves up a social commentary on Morocco’s deeply-divided society. But Animalia is also a very original paranormal drama that makes fascinating use of an apocalyptic tension filled with myriad implications and multiple layers of intrigue.

Peg Aloi is a former film critic for the Boston Phoenix and member of the Boston Society of Film Critics. She taught film studies in Boston for over a decade. She writes on film, TV, and culture for web publications like Time, Vice, Polygon, Bustle, Mic, Orlando Weekly, and Bloody Disgusting. Her blog “The Witching Hour” can be found on substack.