The Devil’s Bath – the latest genre movie from Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, the directing duo behind the disturbing horror films Goodnight Mommy (the original, not the Naomi Watts remake) and The Lodge – has been acquired by Shudder, with the streaming service planning to release it in North America, the U.K., Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand on June 28th. With that date just a few weeks away, Shudder has released a trailer for the film… and oddly, they chose to release it through the Letterboxd X account first, as you can see below. But it has since made its way to YouTube and is now embedded at the top of this article.
The Devil’s Bath – which has been described as “utterly harrowing”, “chilling”, and “impactful” – is a German-language film that is set in 1750 Austria, at a time when villages were surrounded by deep forests. There, a deeply religious woman has married her beloved, but her mind and heart soon grow heavy as her life becomes a long list of chores and expectations. Day after day, she is increasingly trapped in a murky and lonely path leading to evil thoughts, until the possibility of committing a shocking act of violence seems like the only way out of her turmoil. Franz and Fiala said it’s “a movie that tackles the horrors of depression and aims to give a voice to women who have been unheard throughout history.”
Anja Plaschg, David Scheid, Maria Hofstätter, Camilla Schielin, and Lorenz Tröbinger star. The film was produced by Ulrich Seidl Productions, as a co-production with Heimatfilm and Coop99 Filmproduktion.
While we wait to check out The Devil’s Bath, Franz and Fiala have already lined up their next genre project: the psychological horror movie A Head Full of Ghosts, which is based on a novel by Paul Tremblay (you can pick up a copy of the book HERE). Another novel written by Tremblay was The Cabin at the End of the World, which M. Night Shyamalan turned into Knock at the Cabin. A Head Full of Ghosts has been in development for years. Back in 2018, Osgood Perkins was attached to write and direct the film. In 2020, Scott Cooper came on board to direct and rewrite Perkins’ script, while Margaret Qualley was set to star in it. The producers are hoping the project will finally get into production later this year with Franz and Fiala at the helm.
What did you think of the trailer for The Devil’s Bath? Will you be watching this movie when it starts streaming on Shudder? Let us know by leaving a comment below.