Tribeca Film Festival 2022 Report 1: FAMILY DINNER, HUESERA & A WOUNDED FAWN

Let’s begin this year’s Tribeca with a horrific bang! While I’m not on the ground this year, sadly, I am still able to experience the beauty of this wonderful festival at home. In my first coverage, I dive into three horrors, two (Family Dinner and Huesera) vastly reliant on a psychological slow burn and both connected by their shared intimacy with horror. The last (A Wounded Fawn) is harder to quantify, but hella fun to try.

Family Dinner (Peter Hengl)

Family Dinner is a more subdued, quiet film that speaks the strongest without words. Peter Hengl writes and directs in his feature debut, and this holiday horror takes its influences thoughtfully and is an impressive first feature.

Fifteen-year-old Simi (Nina Katlein) heads to her Aunt Claudia’s (Pia Hierzegger) home days before Easter. Simi struggles with her weight and she hopes her Aunt, who is a published nutritionist, can help. To say that this family has some issues is putting it lightly, and even early on with her arrival, there’s a sense of dread that sits in the pit of your stomach until the very end. Her cousin Filipp (Alexander Sladek), who she must share a room with is a volatile teen, often crude and cruel to Simi. His stepdad Stefan (Michael Pink) and Filipp seem to butt heads, which, along with everything else, creates this lingering static of unease in the air of the house.

The film is relocated to primarily the one setting, with many scenes spent around the dinner table that are some of the most awkward “meals” I’ve seen. Everybody is fasting except for Filipp (Claudia suggests Simi join them to jumpstart her weight loss) and while he’s the only one eating, everyone still joins him around the table. Family Dinner really makes you feel the discomfort. The food (or the absence of it) plays an enormous part in directing the uncomfortable tether that seems to wrap around this small cast until each scene feels claustrophobic. The sound design is also exceptional which somehow makes even a stomach growling seem like an ominous notion.

There are elements that I think could have been strengthened (specifically some of the middle aspects seem less confident) but the atmosphere and the feeling of disconnect and isolation for Simi, make this an inherently deranged familial horror.

As the week continues and the holiday is on the horizon, the family dynamics grow in droves with their strangeness and an underlying mystery that isn’t solved until its end but remains pronounced throughout. Nina Katlein is terrific, anchoring the film with her restrained performance. Family Dinner looks at body image, family dynamics and traditions, and the inescapable feeling that can be portrayed in a household, or within our own insecurities.

This is a psychological thriller that relies on the patient draw, the slow wound that opens over time. The finale is certainly a big and disturbing reveal culminating in a twisted Easter feast. Family Dinner is an unnerving dish, indeed.

Huesera (Michelle Garza Cervera)

This next film has similar tones with a story about the struggles of new motherhood and identity but Michelle Garza Cervera’s Huesera in its essence is a slow-boiling psychological thriller.

Valeria (Natalia Solián) and her husband Raúl (Alfonso Dosal) have just gotten the wonderful news that they are finally with child. The news should bring bliss and solace, but not long after, Valeria seems to struggle from hallucinations, paranoia, and psychological distress. Michelle Garza Cervera does a good job of keeping the narrative focused on our lead actress, and Solián is terrific in portraying the pain in her every movement.

The film is inherently scary because of more than just around-the-corner jumps (and the faceless, distorted bodies do incite genuine terror) but the internal cage that she struggles with every day. Her past flame Octavia (Mayra Batalla) has come back into her life too, causing further confusion as she’s unsure of what she really wants.

This is another film that spends a lot of time inside the home, and also feels compressed, as if every breath she takes is confined, and it comes through in both the performances and the spirit that surrounds the film. The cinematography is subtle but effective and the sound design is also impeccable, making every time she snaps her knuckles in anxiety physically affect me. As a new mother, she feels the need to protect her child, even against herself, and it’s an unsettling thing to watch. One scene, in particular, had me holding my breath, waiting for a reveal.

She thinks that the La Huesera may be watching her, and she needs to dispel what is haunting her. The La Huesera or “the Bone Woman” is from an old tale of a woman who collects bones to recreate a skeleton, that eventually turns into a woman who can run away. It’s fitting that Michelle Garza Cervera would choose this for her debut feature, as both lore and a metaphor as we see Valeria manifesting her desire to embrace escape.

In the end, there is catharsis for our leading lady and for the audience, but not until after one of the most disturbing shots of the movie. Huesera is a powerful, complex creation that leaves behind a torrent of emotions. It is a stellar debut from a new and bold voice in horror.

A Wounded Fawn (Travis Stevens)

Travis Stevens’ newest is a colorful blast, a mixed bag of obscure comedy (very Evil Dead-esque) mythological entities, and murderous impulses.

Madeline (Sarah Lind), having recently escaped an abusive relationship, decides to go away for the weekend with her new boyfriend Bruce (Josh Ruben) in a nice isolated cabin. Sounds charming, yeah? Unbeknownst to her, Bruce has a secret, a part inside his brain (that appears as a giant Owl like creature) that has him kill women. This time though, things don’t quite go right for Bruce, and Stevens, as he often likes to do, flips the script.

When they first arrive at the cabin Bruce seems like the dutiful host: cooking dinner and showing off his place filled with fine art. However, one piece in particular (a statue of Tisiphone, Alecto and Megaera, the three Furies – apt here) catches Madeline’s eye and she knows something is off. Not only that but everything that could go bump in the night literally does. There are some terrific shots and jump scares that basically scream “Get Out”. Meanwhile, Bruce appears to be more deterred by her lack of courtesy before he too starts to see something really is stalking, in particular, him.

Once his tendencies come back, and he is pushed to kill, the film goes from eerie (and yet always funny at times) to a tale of vengeful mythology set out to deliver Bruce his comeuppance.

Hell hath no fury like in A Wounded Fawn. Serial killers beware, things may just be out to hunt you for a change. Bruce continues to become psychologically unhinged as visions plague and torment him. Both Lind and Ruben are game for anything here, but Ruben really drives this manic art-filled insanity home, committing to Bruce with a devilish smile.

It is often a visual explosion, frequent bright tones of red reminding us of the blood lust at the core and the blood price to be paid. It’s an intriguing concoction of supernatural forces, psychological torment, and hilariously disturbing imagery. It also has to be said that it has one of the funniest extended finales I’ve seen in some time. A Wounded Fawn is delightfully bizarre and a daring dose of horror.

All three films premiered at Tribeca Film Festival 2022.