DIRECTOR: Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala
STARRING: Anja Plaschg, Maria Hofstatter, David Scheid
RUNNING TIME: 2 hrs 01 minutes
LANGUAGE: German
During the 18th century Austria, villages are surrounded by deep forests. Agnes is marrying her loved one and candidly prepares herself for a spouse life. Soon after, her head and heart start to feel heavy. Day after day, she is increasingly trapped in a murky and lonely path leading to evil thoughts.
***
The Devil's Bath is the third fiction feature from Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala after their award-winning film Goodnight Mommy (Austrian submission in 2015) and The Lodge. The film, starring Anja Plaschg, premiered in Competition at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear for Best Cinematography.
The submission was decided by a jury of experts and announced by the Film & Music Association of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber.
The feature is produced by Ulrich Seidl Filmproduktion, in co-production with Heimatfilm Cologne & Coop99.
The Devil's Bath is a horror film, shot in Litschau in Northern Austria, close to Czechia.
To check out all previous submissions for Austria, click HERE.
STARRING: Anja Plaschg, Maria Hofstatter, David Scheid
RUNNING TIME: 2 hrs 01 minutes
LANGUAGE: German
During the 18th century Austria, villages are surrounded by deep forests. Agnes is marrying her loved one and candidly prepares herself for a spouse life. Soon after, her head and heart start to feel heavy. Day after day, she is increasingly trapped in a murky and lonely path leading to evil thoughts.
***
The Devil's Bath is the third fiction feature from Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala after their award-winning film Goodnight Mommy (Austrian submission in 2015) and The Lodge. The film, starring Anja Plaschg, premiered in Competition at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear for Best Cinematography.
The submission was decided by a jury of experts and announced by the Film & Music Association of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber.
The feature is produced by Ulrich Seidl Filmproduktion, in co-production with Heimatfilm Cologne & Coop99.
The Devil's Bath is a horror film, shot in Litschau in Northern Austria, close to Czechia.
To check out all previous submissions for Austria, click HERE.
FILM REVIEW:
(This review contains spoilers.)
“I knew no one could help me.”
The Devil’s Bath is a gripping and intense film that dives deeply into the psychological and societal struggles of the 18th century. By exploring the themes of depression and the extreme measures people took in response to it, the film offers a haunting reflection on historical attitudes towards mental health and religious beliefs. The film offers a thought-provoking and unsettling exploration of a young woman's tragic journey through isolation, societal pressure, and existential despair.
The Devil’s Bath takes place around 1750. Amongst the forests and lakes in rural Upper Austria, people live in tight-knit communities where they work together, dance together, laugh together and die together. The film follows a young woman named Agnes who just got married to Wolf. She is enamoured to her religion, and the environment around her: the blooming nature, the hazy insects, the tart berries. She’s wide-eyed, naive and full of affection, eager to adapt to the ways of her new husband, and anxiously dreaming of becoming pregnant and becoming a mother. She is ready to embark on her new life.
Married life though is not at all what Agnes expected it to be. She quickly becomes to realize that everyday life with Wolf, and his overbearing mother, is more than a let-down for her. Wolf does not have sex with her, ever, and her mother-in-law is extremely harsh, changing the way her household is setup, expecting her to work and cook for the family, and setting up expectations that are too hard for her to meet. Turn after turn, Agnes’ attempts at goodness falls short, and the toll of this failure is too much to take for this young woman, who is far over her head. Day by day, she slowly descends into depression as her heartbroken spirit begins to crack.
The Devil’s Bath is written and directed by the duo Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz, the team behind the harrowing and austere masterpiece Goodnight Mommy. Fiala and Franz work of the research of historian Kathy Stuart, who writes about the phenomenon of “suicide by proxy” in early modern Germany. As there was no such word as depression back in the 18th century, many who suffered from this “disease” dreamed of suicide. But because of strict religious beliefs in regard to the act of suicide, which accrues eternal damnation in the afterlife, the suicidal person would turn to murder, which is punishable by death. The person would commit the crime and quickly turn themselves to authorities to allow themselves to confess and clear their soul with salvation.
This is the devil's bath - a desperate last resort for a poisoned mind, for a suicidal individual, who wants to be gone from this world, but who also wants a guaranteed seat in heaven.
REVIEW: A-
(This review contains spoilers.)
“I knew no one could help me.”
The Devil’s Bath is a gripping and intense film that dives deeply into the psychological and societal struggles of the 18th century. By exploring the themes of depression and the extreme measures people took in response to it, the film offers a haunting reflection on historical attitudes towards mental health and religious beliefs. The film offers a thought-provoking and unsettling exploration of a young woman's tragic journey through isolation, societal pressure, and existential despair.
The Devil’s Bath takes place around 1750. Amongst the forests and lakes in rural Upper Austria, people live in tight-knit communities where they work together, dance together, laugh together and die together. The film follows a young woman named Agnes who just got married to Wolf. She is enamoured to her religion, and the environment around her: the blooming nature, the hazy insects, the tart berries. She’s wide-eyed, naive and full of affection, eager to adapt to the ways of her new husband, and anxiously dreaming of becoming pregnant and becoming a mother. She is ready to embark on her new life.
Married life though is not at all what Agnes expected it to be. She quickly becomes to realize that everyday life with Wolf, and his overbearing mother, is more than a let-down for her. Wolf does not have sex with her, ever, and her mother-in-law is extremely harsh, changing the way her household is setup, expecting her to work and cook for the family, and setting up expectations that are too hard for her to meet. Turn after turn, Agnes’ attempts at goodness falls short, and the toll of this failure is too much to take for this young woman, who is far over her head. Day by day, she slowly descends into depression as her heartbroken spirit begins to crack.
The Devil’s Bath is written and directed by the duo Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz, the team behind the harrowing and austere masterpiece Goodnight Mommy. Fiala and Franz work of the research of historian Kathy Stuart, who writes about the phenomenon of “suicide by proxy” in early modern Germany. As there was no such word as depression back in the 18th century, many who suffered from this “disease” dreamed of suicide. But because of strict religious beliefs in regard to the act of suicide, which accrues eternal damnation in the afterlife, the suicidal person would turn to murder, which is punishable by death. The person would commit the crime and quickly turn themselves to authorities to allow themselves to confess and clear their soul with salvation.
This is the devil's bath - a desperate last resort for a poisoned mind, for a suicidal individual, who wants to be gone from this world, but who also wants a guaranteed seat in heaven.
REVIEW: A-
