‘The Ones Who Grieve’ Review: Visceral, Unflinching, and Unpleasant Historical Horror [Fantastic Fest]

The Devil’s Bath, from filmmakers Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, was one of my favorite horror movies of 2024. Historical horror is more austere and oppressive than most, though in service to its profoundly affecting metaphor, The Devil’s Bath earned its unflinching depiction of patriarchal violence and unrelenting cruelty. The Ones Who Grieve (Les Âmes en peine), helmed by French auteur Quarxx, is similarly nihilistic and cruel, though it begs the question: beyond the cyclical nature of violence, what’s the point?

Zélie (Zélie Rixhon) lives under the perverse authority of her father, Jacob (Thierry Frémont), in rural France at the end of the 19th century. Their community and the surrounding region have been plagued by the “Black Veil,” a mysterious ailment that turns those afflicted into monsters with an appetite for human flesh. Jacob works as a “Masker,” ostensibly a medical role (though more a spiritual one), whereby he sews shut the eyes and mouths of the sick, adorns them with a wooden mask, and abandons them in the woods.

The raison d’être is scripture, principally the mortal sin of taking another’s life. Jacob isn’t killing these “souls in pain.” Instead, he’s neutralizing the harm and allowing nature to carry out the rest. The savagery is conspicuous in The Ones Who Grieve’s first major set piece – Jacob’s operation on a frightened child.

The violence is shocking (against children, it always is), yet it’s only a prelude to the depravity in store. Akin to an artifact from the French Extremity era, The Ones Who Grieve features graphic depictions of sexual violence, rape, mutilation (of the flesh and genitals), cannibalism, incest, and more.

For some, that’s an invitation. Quarxx’s historical setting is more evocative than most, and while it’s not quite Anna Biller, it is as ethereal and haunting as the rural countryside seen in several years back. It’s a handsomely made picture (despite incongruous score), and it compounds the efficacy of the ever-escalating violence depicted.