Horror moviescan take all shapes, and some of the most terrifying ones resemble real life. Terror lies in the unknown of the everyday, and even stories without creatures, ghosts, curses, or murders can be filled with dread and discomfort.
That idea is at the heart of the upcoming Netflix movie Gentle Monster, a French film that screened this year at the Toronto International Film Festival. It’s also a movie that shouldn’t be missed if you’re a fan of story that can disturb and challenge you as a viewer. Here’s what you need to know about this streaming title.
Gentle Monster is an unsettling family drama
Plenty of scares in this chilling mystery
Gentle Monster follows a family of three living in the French countryside. The mother, Lucy, played by Léa Seydoux, is a popular pianist and the father, Philip, is a documentary filmmaker. They share a nine-year-old son, and while they seem to have a picturesque existence in a rustic house filled with love, their lives are shattered when the police come knocking on their door.
The film works so well because the audience is given information in small doses, and only what is absolutely essential. The police have come to arrest Philip and confiscate his electronics. You can speculate where things go from there. I’d rather not give it away entirely because the slow reveals throughout the film are jarring and effective. Told from the perspective of Lucy, she and the audience are never quite sure what is going on, and that doubt and paranoia creeps into every beautiful and haunting frame. That idyllic life is shattered as the audience learns of past money troubles, overbearing parents, and burnout.
There is a secondary storyline in the film that is meant to parallel, to an extent, the plight of Lucy. Else, the police officer assigned to Lucy’s case, is shown as measured and professional in her duties, but outside of work, her ailing father is creating personal problems. He harasses his caregiver, touching her inappropriately, putting Else in a difficult position as she cannot fully tend to him. The parallels here are straightforward — the men in the lives of these women are creating problems — but how they go about dealing with them, and what they know to be true, is another matter.
The Else thread is interesting to an extent, but it does feel like it serves as more of a break from the main tension. A chance meeting between Else and Lucy outside the police station feels a bit unlikely, and does serve to push the plot forward, but the narrative tension that exists throughout the film, as well as the grounded, intense performances, make it easy to forgive one or two conveniences.
One thing the film excels at is how every scene seems to force you to reframe what you just saw. As the mystery unfolds, and more information is revealed, you’ll have to consider what was said and done before. Each scene adds more context, and everything you witnessed gets referenced or returned to one way or another. That focus elevates the drama and the scares. What you saw as something sweet may in fact be far more sinister.
Gentle Monster is an engrossing, exhausting watch, and like the best horror movies, it keeps you on the edge. There are no jump scares, no creatures in the dark, no ghosts haunting old European homes. There is only the uneasy idea that everything you know is wrong, and that you will never really know the truth. Only once the credits are done rolling will you have a chance to catch your breath.
How you can watch Gentle Monster
The psychological thriller is coming soon to streaming
If you missed Gentle Monster on the festival circuit this year, you won’t have to wait too long to enjoy it at home. Gentle Monster will receive a limited theatrical release in North America starting on October 30. It will then arrive on Netflix in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and other regions on November 18.
In order to stream Gentle Monster, you will need a Netflix subscription. The popular service offers both ad-supported and ad-free subscriptions.
More scary titles to stream in the fall
TIFF screened horror series coming to streaming
Gentle Monster will leave you unsettled, and if that’s the vibe you’re going for this fall, then there are plenty of titles to check out, including a bunch that screened at the film festival. For those seeking psychological, nuanced terror, check out Mike Flanagan’s new Carrie series coming to Prime Video in October. His take on the Stephen King story presents a rich and layered look at the children and adults who influence young Carrie’s life following the death of her father. The first two episodes are entrancing and point to a bloody finale.
Peacock subscribers can enjoy a more straightforward horror flick with the Friday the 13th prequel series Crystal Lake. The first episodes promise a bloody and entertaining time. Netflix also will debut Below, a monster series that reads a bit like Widow’s Bay, even if nothing really can ever come close to that Apple TV masterpiece. Below stars Josh Harnett as a fisherman living in a small coastal town whose waters hold a deep, dark secret. Yaga was another horror series that screened at TIFF, but I don’t think it’s worth a watch, unfortunately.
