Sundance Film Festival 2022 Premiere – How many lives does one have to live in order to know what it is to be human? It is a question asked and answered in Goran Stolevski’s witch-tale, You Won’t Be Alone, an official selection of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. There is no mistaking that You Won’t Be Alone is a horror film — its jumpscares are unexpected, subdued, but effective, and the amount of guts spilled in this film could fill a cauldron. I am shocked to learn that You Won’t Be Alone is Stolevski’s feature film debut, but as he admits in the film’s intro that he has 24 short films under his belt, I can see the knowledge gained from prior projects paying off with this venture into occult folk-horror.

In the countryside of 19th-century Macedonia, a mother raises her newborn alone in her home until one day a witch appears to feed off of her daughter. The mother negotiates to have at least 16 years with her daughter, promising to give her to the witch as a servant, but in an attempt to avoid losing her daughter she resigns to raise her in a cave, never letting her set foot outside lest the witch takes her. The effort proves to be futile as the witch collects on their deal and attempts to bring the now feral daughter up as a witch after her own heart, however, when the two do not bond, they decide to part ways, sending the newly turned witch on a journey to find her place in the anti-witch culture that surrounds them, while also fearing the vengeful return of the older witch, who jealously stalks her throughout her lives.

You Won’t Be Alone bewitched me into submission for its nearly 2-hour runtime; I was held in rapt attention by its visual beauty and fascinating storyline. The main character lives life, after life, after life, and more lives, but the film never feels repetitive as each life shows a different perspective of Macedonian society in the 1800s — whether she was a man, a woman, a little girl, or a stray dog. Noomi Rapace never fails, especially when there is a weird premise for her to bite into, and boy does she sink her teeth into the role when it is her turn to be the new face of the young witch.

The magical special effects were hardly noticeable because they were so subtle, especially in moments when the witches seamlessly transformed into other beings. The practical effects were excellent — human innards were on tap throughout the film as the witches used clumps of the remains of their victims in order to transform into them. Also, the makeup effects were done very well with the progenitor witch — the witch who turned the young witch into a witch with her “witch’s spit” — her wizened and badly burned skin was a great callback to the twisted images of witches before Hollywood made witches sexy. Played by Anamaria Marinca in a sorrowful but sinister performance, her character only appeared here and there, but her scenes were effective in establishing the ultimate question of the film — what is freedom without purpose or happiness?

You Won’t Be Alone is my new favorite period-piece witch film — yes, even replacing 2014’s modern masterpiece The VVitch, as I feel this movie also captures a young woman’s road to transforming into a witch very well, but it has a lot more sorcery. You Won’t Be Alone was as much a film about witchcraft as it is a study on life itself, societies, and how humans tend to behave and organize themselves. You Won’t Be Alone is both thought-provoking and a visual treat — it is not an A24 film, but it certainly looks like one. It is polished but also very dirty with all the blood and guts, and so I imagine it should please a wide variety of audiences when it is released in America this upcoming April!

9 Out of 10