THE SPIRAL

Meet Alice. Her estranged mother, Anna, has just arrived at her Rome apartment in the middle of a storm with a preposterous confession: twenty years ago, she made a bargain that cursed their entire family. Talk about dramatic.

Back then, during a lavish party at the family estate, the family dog viciously attacked young Alice, crushing the dreams Anna had already built for her daughter. You see, she’d just booked her first commercial (for a pasta company). And in Anna’s mind, that future could not possibly survive the loss of a leg. So when a mysterious Stranger appears in the hospital chapel and offers Anna a one-of-a-kind bargain, however morally obscene, Anna refuses—until she doesn’t.

Over the next two decades, every attempt she makes to repair the damage only creates new debts, new sacrifices, and consequences for the whole family—and beyond. The monster she fed once keeps demanding payment. Now, Anna believes Alice might hold the key to ending this cruel spiral. This is horror built from guilt: however much Anna loves her daughter, that love is contaminated by ambition, vanity, and the future she projected onto her.

Fantastic Fest alum Paolo Strippoli returns with a lush, unnerving film. As in his previous work, he remains fascinated by the hidden costs of miracles and the moral cost of asking others to carry our pain. He also has a particular gift for turning seemingly ordered lives inside out, revealing the guilt and darker desires concealed beneath them. Jasmine Trinca and Romana Maggiora Vergano immerse us in this terrible night, while Valeria Bruni Tedeschi’s Stranger—charming, frightening, and utterly implacable—gives the film its most unsettling presence. Now do me a favor: however tempting, try to resist making bargains in churches. (SONIA DROULHIOLE)