The Girl with the Needle: Film Review
Between his 2020 film Sweat and his new feature, The Girl with the Needle, writer and director Magnus von Horn has made two vastly different films. It’s hard to believe that the man who made a modern drama about a fitness influencer also directed this gripping black-and-white historical psychological horror.
This Danish movie, which is currently on the shortlist for the International Feature Film Oscar, is set in post-World War I Copenhagen. It tells the story of Karoline (Vic Carmen Sonne), who is dumped and fired by her lover and employer while pregnant with his baby. In despair, the poverty-stricken Karoline tries to give herself an abortion in a public bathhouse, where she encounters Dagmar Overbye (Trine Dyrholm), who runs a sweet shop as a front of an illegal adoption agency. She offers to adopt Karoline’s baby for a fee, but as the young woman has no money, she offers her services as a wet nurse instead.
*CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD*
I don’t typically write about spoilers in my reviews but I think it’s impossible to review The Girl with the Needle properly without doing so. If you don’t know who Dagmar Overbye is, keep it that way and enjoy the film just like I did. If you know, or you have seen the film already, please continue reading.
This film is about Denmark’s most infamous serial killer, who was convicted of killing nine babies in 1921, but Overbye is a supporting character instead of the lead. Some people will wish this story was a true crime piece focused on her but I quite liked that they framed the narrative around a fictional outsider. This perspective makes Overbye’s behaviour more horrifying plus it stops us from spending too much time with her and showing the death of babies. Also, if you don’t know the story beforehand, the big twist about Overbye is shocking – I actually gasped. But on the flip side, if you do know it, you might be frustrated waiting for her to show up in the story.
Either way, Dyrholm is absolutely formidable and chilling as Overbye. She isn’t given enough screen time for us to really understand her motivations and the story is told through the eyes of Karoline so of course we don’t know much about the serial killer outside a brief trial scene.
The film is not a horror in the mainstream sense; it is more of a compelling character study that flirts with the horror genre towards the end simply through Overbye’s horrifying behaviour and the unsettling atmosphere in her shop. You don’t see any of the killings in detail but you see and hear enough to feel shocked and disturbed. The story is bleak and harrowing and accompanied by an often loud and overbearing score.
The Girl with the Needle is certainly not an enjoyable watch or a film that can be seen more than once. However, it is a gripping and chilling film that will surely be nominated for an Oscar soon.
In cinemas from Friday 10th January
Rating: 4 out of 5.
