I think most people wanted to see a hot girl sword fighting in armor in medieval forests. That's all the poster's fault. As much as I hate formulas, movie posters are not art, they are templates designed to tell the viewer at a glance what kind of film you are giving them. In that regard, the poster was atrocious.
Instead you get a slow paced thriller about a young woman traumatized by her mother's suicide when she was a child and the subsequent estrangement of her father. The film brings in a demonic force, but it's nothing more than a symbol of the past one must overcome in order to move forward and not a horror element. The actresses are beautiful and actors (all seven of them, perhaps with the exception of the child, but you know.., child actors) do a good job. The mood is appropriate and the sets well done. The film is rich in psychological symbols and I think for someone living similar (but non supernatural) situations, this could actually be therapeutic.
All in all, for the type of movie it is, it's a pretty good movie. I agree that it could have packed more in less time, but sometimes, if you are in the mood, you can get into the atmosphere of a slow burning film and this is exactly that kind of film. If you are impatient to see sweaty chicks grunting while wielding heavy metal swords you will, of course, be disappointed. However, people that would identify with the main characters would actually benefit from the gradual exposure to possible triggers.
Another aspect of the film that unfortunately took something from the overall experience was the fight scenes in the dark. You could barely understand what was going on. It's a small point, but also a relevant one.
Addressing the lesbian elephant in the room, it was by no means woke, and it wove naturally into the plot. Did the film linger a bit too much on the personal relationships of the lead character so that absolutely nothing really happens in the first 45 minutes? Yes. But that has nothing to do with gender politics.
All in all, I think the people that would have enjoyed the film were thrown off by the poster just as the people who would not have enjoyed were lured in by it. It is a good movie that I don't regret seeing, even if it wasn't really entertaining. Good acting and directing.
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