A dark folktale set in the hills of Wales during the industrial revolution.

Her husband gone off to war, Elen (Maxine Peake) struggles to raise her two daughters, Mari (Jodie Innes) and Gwen (Eleanor Worthington-Cox) on a farm that struggles in solitude on land the local quarry wants to buy out from under them. When the townspeople turn against them, when their sheep die off mysteriously, when Elen begins to have seizures, the family valiantly fights to simply survive in this bleak, fog-shrouded Welsh countryside.

Gwen is well-acted and subtle, slow-moving and dream-like at times, with a creeping dread that only grows as the film progresses. Secrets are discovered leaving the eldest daughter feeling alone against the world, unsure of who to trust or what to lean on.

It has been compared to The Witch, another old-timey folk-horror seemingly filmed entirely on the grayest days of the year. The threat is largely human, though, and while Gwen prays for her mother, the supernatural is not what there is to fear. With very little change this could have been marketed as historical drama rather than horror.

The setting is the main character here, with their low cottage with its toothy stone wall and chicken-strewn rocky hills, the family farm is homey in its way, the surrounding hills beautiful, even, but still oppressive and bleak. On top of this the pastoral village is trundling along into the industrial revolution, and the quarry and miners are the new industry, and the farms are dying off. It is within this setting that Gwen and her family go through their own, more personal fights.

But for all that, the key words in all of this are slow and bleak. If that seems off-putting, then this may not be the film for you. It was not for me.