The Gutter’s own Carol Borden has some quick reflections on Didier Konings’ Witte Wieven / Heresy:

Writer / director Didier Konings’ Witte Wieven, aka, Heresy, is atmospheric folk horror set in a small village in the Netherlands in the Middle Ages. This is not the fun Middle Ages–skipping to the sackbut and krumhorn, everyone telling bawdy jokes and having affairs as nightingales sing the wood. No, this is the depressing, Devil- and God-haunted Middle Ages where there are punishment cages, everyone eats gruel, and somehow women are responsible for everything and men are sympathized with and feted no matter what they do. Witte Wieven is as much gender horror as it is folk horror. Witte Wieven is a beautiful, sad, rage-inducing, and possibly ultimately hopeful film, depending on how you feel about the spirit in the woods.

Frieda (Anneke Sluiters), is considered entirely at fault for the difficulties she and her husband Hikko (Len Leo Vincent) are having at conceiving a child. Her husband appears caring when he notices her surreptitiously checking under the covers to see if her period has come and tells her she should not hide it from him. But later, when Frieda tells him the local priest believes that eating the meat of a pregnant wild pig will help them conceive, Hikko lashes out, “Never imply this is my problem. This is on you.” There is no help, only blame for the women in the village. And it’s clear that the only value they hold for those around them is their ability  to bear children. Which, I have to say, is particularly resonant at this time.  When a man attempts to “help” Frieda by raping her, she runs into the woods. There in the forest the villagers shun as demonic, something saves Frieda and brutally attacks the man. The villagers blame Frieda, not only for what happened to her and what happens to him, but for surviving the woods at all. The villagers begin to accuse her of conspiring with the devil. Then Frieda returns to the woods and encounters whatever resides there and it transforms her. The sequence where the spirit gives Frieda a gift is gorgeously surreal and affecting. Incidentally, the costuming and art design are wonderful in the whole film. And all of this is remarkable for working with such a dark color palette.

Witte Wieven is part of a series of made-for-television horror movies assembled by filmmaker Martin Koolhaven for Koolhaven Presenteert. The film does have a prestige television feel, especially in its pacing and economy. Witte Wieven never feels rushed or incomplete. Even Frieda’s revelation in the woods has all the time it needs to be effective. And while I certainly felt all the wonder and anger I was meant to, I was glad that Konings did not linger overly long on the daily cruelties and indignities visited on the women of this nameless village. And, unsurprisingly, I loved the thing in the woods. 

Read more from Carol on Witte Wieven here.