WOACA
2023 · 14m · UK
Directed by Mackenzie Davis
Tones: darkly comic, tense
A woman maintains a meticulous daily skincare routine, but when a pimple appears on her face, her reaction escalates from calm concern to obsessive warfare against the blemish, spiraling into body-horror chaos.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Sidse Babett Knudsen waging a wordless war on a pimple until everything dissolves into Substance territory — sign me up immediately. Symmetrical framing breaking down as the brain breaks down is the move.
Sidse Babett Knudsen as the engine of a dialogue-free body-horror satire is a casting coup of the first order, in the lineage of Coralie Fargeat's The Substance but distilled. The Vimeo comment thread suggests it provokes the intended visceral response.
13:33, Sidse Babett Knudsen carrying a dialogue-free body-horror skincare satire — the comment thread literally calling it 'an evolution of the form' is the kind of viewer reaction I trust more than a festival sticker. Symmetrical framing that breaks down with the character is a precise, legible technique.
Reviews
In her directorial debut WOACA, Mackenzie Davis crafts a visceral narrative that will make you squirm. From the numbness of the start, to the growing anger, turmoil and desperation, Knudsen nails every single layer.
Festivals
- Toronto International Film Festival 2023
- BFI London Film Festival 2023