Heresy (Witte Wieven)

Set in medieval Holland, Heresy tells an age-old story of faith, superstition and misogyny. While it’s not right to label this entire period the ‘Dark Ages’, there is no doubt that certain elements were.

Frieda (Anneke Sluiters) is childless, a woman of great faith in God and the guidance of the village priest. She’s therefore happy enough to partake in bizarre rituals that will allegedly address her worries. It’s a stressful time for Frieda and receives little support from her pathetic husband Hikko (Len Leo Vincent) who at the first whiff that it could be down to him, gets violent.

And violence is all around. When she walks into the supposedly cursed woods Frieda is followed by Gelo (Léon van Waas) (who was earlier in a cage because of a sexual assault). He had offered to ‘help’ her get pregnant. When he’s rejected again, he tries to murder Frieda but is saved by a creature that tears Gelo apart, as the villagers discover later on. Frieda virtually shunned by the village returns to the woods where she encounters the entity and becomes pregnant. The villagers are horrified and she is accused of consorting with the devil.

Heresy is beautifully and sensitively directed by Didier Konings, written by Marc S. Nollkaemper. To the fore is Frieda’s confusion between the deep love she has for her faith and the realisation that it can so easily be turned against her.

It’s a brooding dark film that at just over an hour is also tight. There’s not much dialogue relying more on developing dread and atmosphere. Its necessarily bleak; the wood’s imposing wall of trees with a large cross in front don’t require any explanation.

And yet as Frieda begins to gain more confidence by venturing into the woods there’s a glimmer of hope. This is realised when she eventually encounters the White Woman in a wonderfully lysergic SFX sequence. This contrasts with Hikko’s brutal bloody death when Frieda if forced to defend herself.

The ‘White Women’ (The original Dutch title) is initially shown in shadow, then more revealing as a spindly demon, and finally a tall, beautiful woman with white hair. It’s a well-paced reveal over several scenes that allows Frieda time to realise that the villagers’ superstitions regarding the woods may not be true and for to grow more confident in her own thoughts and decisions.

Heresy is available on Shudder.