The Little Girl Eater
2023 · 12m · Germany
Directed by Tizian Herzberger
Genres: coming-of-age, mystery, thriller
Tones: contemplative, dark, tense
Left to play alone on a cold, isolated beach, eight-year-old Miranda finds an injured man and becomes convinced that the child-eating monster of legend is real.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The premise wants to be a folk-horror reversal—kid meets monster, monster is just a guy—but it settles into competent thriller beats instead of actually interrogating the myth. Herzberger has the bones for something genuinely subversive here and chose the safe lane.
A formally assured piece that situates itself cleanly in the coming-of-age thriller tradition; the isolation of the beach and the child's interpretive gaze recall a lineage from Vigo forward, executed with measured control and compositional clarity.
The film pivots entirely on Miranda's performance—that specific moment where certainty flickers into doubt—and Herzberger trusts a child actor to carry ambiguity without winking at the camera, which is the decision that makes this work on a shoestring.
Reviews
This is beautifully shot and paced extremely well. The real villains here are obviously the parents; you have to be careful what you say to kids!