Alpha

Alpha lives alone with her mother. When she comes home from school one day bearing a fresh tattoo, both are seized by the fear that she has contracted a virulent new blood-borne illness, a plague transforming its victims into lifeless marble effigies. Julia Ducournau, one of the foremost creative voices in contemporary body horror, here steps back from Cronenbergian brutality and violence to delve into an existential tale of loss and loneliness. No longer intent primarily on shocking her audience, she infuses her latest film with vulnerability and asks a profound question: how can we preserve our humanity in a world paralysed by fear, where everything around us seems to be gradually dying?