Time: 115 Minutes
Cast:
Vic Carmen Sonne as Karoline
Trine Dyrholm as Dagmar
Besir Zeciri as Peter
Joachim Fjelstrup as Jørgen
Tessa Hoder as Frida
Avo Knox Martin as Erena
Director: Magnus von Horn

I decided to watch The Girl with the Needle after seeing it nominated for Best International Feature at the Oscars. It was really good, far more impactful and viscerally unnerving than I was expecting.

The first act takes its time to establish the setting, the protagonist, and her situation. It does feel a little drawn out though, and occasionally it borders on feeling like misery porn with the suffering on display. It is a very bleak movie and is very unsettling from the very first scene. It’s technically not a horror film, but it might as well be. It’s harrowing and unflinching with the narrative, but also with how honest and real it feels. It is set in post World War 1 Denmark and really establishes an unforgiving and unpleasant world with people trying to survive and scraping by, and it feels gritty and grounded in that time period. It gets only more twisted as it progresses. It is even more unsettling to later learn that this movie was somewhat based on a true story.

This movie strongly benefits from the visceral acting, especially from its two leads. Vic Carmen Sonne gives an incredible and compelling performance, and Trine Dyrholm is equally great.

Magnus von Horn’s direction is really strong. The black and white cinematography is beautifully stunning yet haunting, with nightmarish and striking imagery. The atmosphere is very dark and almost oppressive, helped further by the outstanding (if a little too overt) score from Frederikke Hoffmeir.

The Girl with the Needle is a bleak and unsettling thriller, visually stunning, and excellently directed and performed.