Review: Life through a witch’s eyes in ‘You Won’t Be Alone’
Associated PressMaybe it’s a counter-reaction to our increasingly digital reality, but lately horror films have increasingly turned to primal pasts to resurrect the rituals and fears of folktale. And in his feature-film debut, “You Won’t Be Alone,” he has drawn from old regional witch tales to craft a spell-binding immersion in a distant and fantastical 19th century Macedonian realm that nevertheless throbs with a strange, timeless existentialism. In voiceovers that bear a touch of those found in Terrence Malick’s films, Nevena’s half-formed words — she calls Maria “Witch-Mama” and herself “Me-the-Witch” — struggle for understanding. But “You Won’t Be Alone” — not really a horror film — is much more concerned with using the young witch’s innocent but deadly outlook to examine life. “You Won’t Be Alone” a Focus Features release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for violence and gore, sexual content, graphic nudity, and sexual assault.