Heresy (2024)

In an isolated, Medieval Dutch village - on the edge of a dark, spooky forest - lonely young Frieda (Anneke Sluiters) is in a childless and loveless marriage to Hikko (Len Leo Vincent).

Despite her desperate prayers to God and fertility tests by the village priest, Father Bartholomeus (Reinout Bussemaker), her fellow superstitious villagers fear her possible barrenness is a curse …and that she could spread that curse to them.

Loathsome butcher Gelo (Léon van Waas) - who, at the start of the film is being released from the "punishment cage" for seemingly assaulting Frieda's friend Sasha (Nola Elvis Kemper) - makes vile, suggestive comments to Frieda, which she rebuffs.

But then one evening he follows her into the forest and forces himself upon her.

Only "something" comes out of the trees and drags him away.

Of course, the villagers won't hear anything bad about the man - despite his proven form - and it becomes clear, if it wasn't already, that Frieda is dealing with an adamantine wall of patriarchal misogyny. 

The next night (I'm not sure why they didn't look in the day), the men of the village go hunting for Gelo in the woods and find his mutilated corpse plastered around a tree.

The villagers now believe that Frieda is consorting with the Devil and her life only gets worse.

Eventually she returns to the forest and her supernatural saviour reveals herself to be a mystical Witte Wieven (a mythological entity believed to be the spirit of a wise woman) who draws Frieda into a psychedelic ritual.

Waking up the next morning, she returns to the village only to discover that actually some time has passed.

Although this isn't spelt out overtly, Hikko says the village had believed Frieda dead and had found himself a new wife already!

Then at the evening prayer meeting, when Father Bartholomeus is giving Frieda a hard time for not knowing her prayers "correctly", she suddenly throws up and almost as one the rest of the village realise that Frieda is actually pregnant.

So, it's off to the "punishment cage" for her, where Hikko tells her he's going to cut the devil child out of her.

But Frieda has other ideas.

Heresy (originally called Witte Wieven) is an hour-long Dutch rural horror film from 2024 that is currently available via Shudder.

The short film carries a strong feeling of the hardest-hitting Twilight Zone episodes that lift the lid on paranoia and mass hysteria, but with a heavy serving of inexcusable misogyny.

The Witte Wieven (played at different times by Sam Post and Easy May Walker) was an enigmatic folkloric creature capable of both great destruction and creation. 

While not wholly original, Heresy relies on its suffocating atmosphere and Frieda's isolation, even when she is in her community. Therefore, it's a shame more wasn't made of the dark, misty forest (Although I'm not sure why the villagers built their homes next to a forest they were all terrified of).