REVIEW: Des Teufels Bad [The Devil’s Bath] [2024]

Rating: NR | Runtime: 121 minutes
Release Date: March 8th, 2024 (Austria) / June 21st, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Plaion Pictures / IFC Films / Shudder
Director(s): Severin Fiala & Veronika Franz
Writer(s): Severin Fiala & Veronika Franz

The woods are singing.

It’s not until a man commits suicide halfway through Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz’s The Devil’s Bath that we truly understand what it is we witnessed in the opening scene. What first appears to be a woman lost in darkness who throws her baby over a waterfall before confessing and being beheaded suddenly takes on additional context when a man who takes his own life is refused burial and thus rendered a “lost soul.” Unlike him, the woman was given the opportunity to confess her sins and be absolved en route to Heaven. By killing her child to achieve suicide by proxy, she saved her soul.

This “loophole” was used often in the 1800s with approximately four hundred known cases dealing with women murdering children in Germanic regions alone according to research conducted by Kathy Stuart. It’s her findings that inspired Fiala and Franz to write the film—one that was originally planned as a courtroom drama due to there being concrete first-hand, written accounts of what these women said drove them to commit their crimes. Instead of a stale film with characters talking for two hours, however, the filmmakers decided to pivot to a more personal depiction of one woman’s heartbreaking descent into madness.

Agnes (Anja Plaschg) wasn’t a depressive before her wedding. She was happy, in love with Wolf (David Scheid), and desperate to be a mother. So invested in getting pregnant, she even partakes in what appear to be pagan prayers with severed fingers and a bag of curios meant to help her conceive. But everything changes that first night when Wolf stumbles in drunk. He refuses sex, depriving her of her main purpose—something he continues to do many times afterwards. Stuck without a child to raise, Agnes is forced to endure the judgment of her mother-in-law (Maria Hofstätter). Failing to become a mother, she’s made to believe she’s also failed to become a good wife.

The film progresses as a gradually escalating series of self-destructive acts. Dark thoughts and self-loathing creep in to make Agnes lose time in melancholy due to nothing going right. She becomes trapped in the psychological turmoil while we see what’s happening through a modern lens. Like Wolf always getting close to other men when drunk. Or Wolf’s mother constantly trying to force her wants and desires upon Agnes. Or the archaic religious imperatives that feed a self-sustaining cycle of violence helped by an even more archaic system of health care. This is a world built to neglect those who need the most care. One that leaves them to choose between impossible extremes so appearances can remain unimpeachable.

There are some really memorable sequences that arrive once Agnes starts to lose her grip on reality. Nothing is strictly horror per se, but the psychological and emotional toll definitely creates an air of anxious uncertainty. A good portion of that is also conjured through Plaschg’s performance. Here is a woman running towards a cliff with the best of intentions who discovers many would rather throw her off then lend a hand. She’s told to be pious yet chastised for praying too often. She’s told to be a mother yet is unable through no fault of her own. She’s judged and chastised and resented to the point of full dissociation. A point where the only escape is on their terms. Where release ultimately feeds their bloodlust for more.