Shudder’s ‘The Devil’s Bath’ Gets Re-Release After Selected as Austria’s Academy Award Submission

Shudder is re-releasing Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala‘s period feature The Devil’s Bath for a North American theatrical run next week. The special theatrical run comes after the film was selected as Austria’s Academy Award submission.

Watch The Devil’s Bath in select theaters on November 13, 2024.

Shot on 35mm, The Devil’s Bath is based on historical records, and the film debuted at Berlinale this year where it was awarded a Silver Bear for Martin Schlacht’s cinematography.

Here’s the official plot synopsis for the German-language horror movie: “In 1750 Austria, a deeply religious woman named Agnes has just married her beloved, but her mind and heart soon grow heavy as her life becomes a long list of chores and expectations. Day after day, she is increasingly trapped in a murky and lonely path leading to evil thoughts, until the possibility of committing a shocking act of violence seems like the only way out of her inner prison.”

Anja Plaschg, David Scheid, Maria Hofstätter, Camilla Schielin, and Lorenz Tröbinger star.

The Devil’s Bath is deeply rooted in history and historical accounts, but it’s a fictionalized depiction that gave the filmmakers some creative leeway. Though they did their extensive research for authenticity.

“We did a huge amount of research,“ Fiala previously told Bloody Disgusting. “There were actually three historians involved, researching different aspects of life back then. Like, let’s say, medical procedures, approach to religion, daily life, and exorcism. All of that stuff has been researched, but there are not too many sources because history was not too interested in the specifics of ordinary people and women’s history. That automatically created some leeway because there are so few sources that our historians said, ‘It could have been like that, and maybe this is just a singular event,