Sundance review: 'You Won't Be Alone' is a moody, atmospheric version of a disturbing folk tale

As horror movies go, writer-director Goran Stolevski’s feature debut “You Won’t Be Alone” is at once visually disturbing and emotionally tender — a good trick for a movie about a body-changing witch.

The residents of a mountain village in Macedonia, somewhere in the 1800s, are terrified of the stories of a baby-eating witch that stalks the area. The gnarled old witch, Old Maid Maria (Anamaria Marinca), thinks she’s found a baby — but the child’s mother makes a bargain for the witch to return when the girl has come of age. 

Nevena’s mom raises the girl in a cave, hoping to keep Maria from finding her. But when Nevena (played as an adult by Sara Klimoska) turns 16, Maria returns to claim her prize. Nevena runs away, but Maria catches her, and starts training her in the art of surviving as a witch. 

Nevena has to pick up the main trick on her own: How to take over the bodies of humans, so as to blend in with them. Nevena bounces from village to village, and from body to body; some of her victims include Noomi Rapace (Lisbeth Salander in the original “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” trilogy) and Alice Englert (“The Power of the Dog”).

Stolevski, who is of Australian and Macedonian heritage, is stronger on mood than plot, and he creates some stunning and disturbing visuals, particularly of the bloody body-switching process. He understands that the line between folk legend and fairy tale is a blurry one, and there’s something that’s satisfyingly Grimm in the way the story plays out.

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‘You Won’t Be Alone’

★★★1/2

Premiered Saturday, January 22, in the World Cinema Dramatic competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Screens again on the festival portal, Monday, January 24, for a 24-hour window starting at 8 a.m. (It is expected to be released in U.S. theaters on April 1.) Rated R for violence and gore, sexual content, graphic nudity, and sexual assault. Running time: 108 minutes; in Macedonian, with subtitles.