Julia Ducournau’s new film Alpha (which has just premiered in Cannes) has its fair share of blood, vomiting and death – but it’s still a strangely muted affair. At the late night press screening I attended, the walkouts seemed prompted more by weariness and ennui than squeamishness or disgust. When the French director unveiled her serial killer/body horror movie Titane two years ago, she caused a sensation and won the Palme d’Or, the festival’s main prize. This time around, there hasn’t been the same scandal or fanfare.
Alpha has some tremendous moments, but the movie is undermined by its own dense and impenetrable storytelling style. It would surely have worked far better as an immersive installation piece than as a two hour feature. Early on, a character recites from an Edgar Allan Poe poem: “all that we say or seem is but a dream within a dream.” This seems to be Ducournau’s method of signalling to us that she is not remotely interested in conventional narrative or characterisation.
