THIS MONTH
NIGHTSIREN
LEGENDARY AUTHOR AND CRITICKIM NEWMANBRINGS US HIS UNIQUE TAKES ON CULT CINEMA
MATTHEW BRAZIER
Arrow Video
Top to bottom: Šarlota (Natália Germáni) is beset by horrors in Svetlonoc/Nightsiren; A lupine threat.
TEREZA NVOTOVÁ’S SVETLONOC, aka Nightsiren — out now on Blu-ray from Arrow — is set in contemporary Slovakia, but explores the persistence of horribly convenient (for men) superstitions. In the Carpathians, calling a woman a witch is an infallible excuse to do dreadful things to her. Pretty much everything which goes wrong — especially if it’s some idiot bloke’s fault — is written off as witchcraft. Šarlota (Natália Germáni), who fled the village as a child, is drawn back by a bogus letter from the mayor, inviting her to claim an inheritance which turns out to be a burned-down cabin. A witch did it, apparently. The locals are unfriendly, except for a few nonconforming women who have somehow survived — notably Mira (Eva Mores), whose skills with herbalism and home-made psychedelics suggest that by some definitions she really is a witch.