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Director Charlotte Colbert‘s feature debut impresses with its bold grasp of visual storytelling. It tells of famous actress Veronic Ghent (Alice Krige), who retreats to the Highlands to recover after a double mastectomy. The land’s power awakens something within her, granting her the ability to obtain retribution through dreams. First, she’ll have to contend with resurfaced trauma connected with director Hathbourne (Malcolm McDowell).
At Fantastic Fest, Colbert explained how She Will came together, “Kitty Percy, who I wrote the script with, who’s amazing. She sent this script, and it had loads of elements that I was really interested in within my practice and my life, like dreams, the unconscious, revenge, the power of nature. The history of persecuted women, the way the land carries the history of the people who came before us. Then we started working on the script and bringing a lot of the themes of nature in and the solace that that creates and stuff, and then created this kind of surreal beast.”
The Highlands served a particular influence for the story’s setting: “Where we shot in the Highlands is next to the Cairngorms and next Aviemore. It’s so, so, so beautiful. It’s also where the last women to be burnt for witchcraft in England were from, and it was a mother and daughter called Helen and Janet. It’s crazy. Just in Scotland alone, 3000 people were tried and executed for witchcraft, which is nuts. It’s always so stunning how people are afraid of witches and not the people who burned them. It’s just completely crazy. I think we were interested in reinterpreting that and using that past as something that Alice’s character can take strength from in a way.”
Krige has a long history in horror playing powerful or fearsome women, but her power here comes from a vulnerability. When asked about that, Krige answered, “That’s such a very interesting way of looking at it because she has completely covered over her vulnerability. I’m sure she, I mean when she says the mask is about preservation, Veronica knows how vulnerable she is, but it’s hard to admit it to herself, even though she lives with it daily. But yes, it is. It is ultimately the source of her rediscovery. That’s what she learns to be again.”
When asked about Hathbourne’s quieter arc, McDowell thoughtfully answers, “If that’s what you see in it, that’s what’s there. I’m not being facetious saying that, but you know, when you’re reflective in a thing, then it really is up to the audience to make up a scenario. I love the fact that you’re not hit over the head with it. It’s rather enigmatic, and it should be. That’s what makes it interesting, and also gives him a vulnerability, which he doesn’t show that often.”
One surprising announcement came late to She Will’s production; Dario Argento signed on as an executive producer. “It’s amazing. I was saying before that he was like sort of this abstract concept. So, it’s quite cool. It’s amazing that he’s come on board. It all happened through Locarno, really,” Colbert said of Argento’s involvement after seeing the film at the Locarno Film Festival.
McDowell quipped, “He loved it. He wanted to be part of it. That just shows you how much he loves it.”