Gwen is a 2019 drama about a young woman struggling to hold her home together as her world slowly begins to fall apart.
The wind billows from all corners in the long opening moments of writer and director William McGregor‘s period thriller Gwen, hushing some voices and carrying others, creating a caustic sort of trepidation in the foggy unknown just beyond the stone walls of the isolated home of teenager Gwen (Eleanor Worthington-Cox). She lives with her mother Elen (Maxine Peake), and younger sister, Mari (Jodie Innes), they alone as Gwen’s father is away at war. She tends to the sheep and works the potato field but all is not well, a darkness looms as the local mining company looks to expand though Elen refuses to give up the farm. And so comes a sinister series of increasing malevolence that seems to push Gwen’s mother into a kind of tortured madness, yet who … or what … is behind it?
It’s McGregor’s unwavering trust in his audience to piece this together that truly makes the difference, the movie certainly not without dialogue but used sparingly, these few characters nearly mute among the ethereal sounds of the harsh, pervasive winds pressing down on the old house. We rely instead on purposeful pacing and dark imagery as a dangerous mystery ever so slowly unfolds with Elen succumbing to violent seizures and self-cutting as Gwen labors to understand the small horrors befalling her family.
These include slaughtered lambs, rats in the hen house, a heart nailed to the front door, and more. But it is the nightmares congealing with reality, the sight of neighbors dying, and some strange conversations with men of power with an offer they seem unwilling to back away from that cause the most concern. It only spirals worse from there, the fate of a beloved animal a trial Gwen simply can’t accept.
This all sounds like fodder for a generic horror movie, but Gwen is anything but, the kneejerk comparison one made with Robert Eggers‘ The Witch. However, while religion has its place in this story, it is less about the monster in the dark than the breakdown of humanity, the loss this teen girl suffers as her family steadily dissipates, that made achingly so in the repeating scenes of Gwen circling a block of stone with her father, mother, and sister. Where that ends foreshadows a greater truth perhaps Gwen better understands than she cares to admit.
This is a tragedy from the start, McGregor on message all the way through, even if getting us there depends on our own capacity for patience. It’s a brief test though, Gwen deliberate but resourceful in folding all the corners in. It is scary not for the long shadows and possibilities that lay hiding within but for the bleak cruelty these women suffer in the name of greed.
Worthington-Cox is a genuine talent, the young actress one to keep a keen eye on while Peake truly holds the film together, the weight of the entire story resting on her shoulders. Either way, this will not be an easy watch for fans of the genre looking for jolts, Gwen more a harrowing slice of history spun in colors of folktale horror than a straight up jump scare cookie-cutter slasher. Many will most likely dismiss it. However, for those looking more for a challenge in their movies, this will absolutely have its rewards. Highly recommended.