Signature Entertainment, out 15 November

FrightFest 2021

A woman leaves a psychiatric ward after a nervous breakdown, only to start hearing mysterious knocking sounds in her apartment.

Director Frida Kempff’s (Winter Buoy) Swedish language psychological thriller is best judged as a study of the frail mental state of a broken woman as she comes to terms with living in the real world after a period of incarceration. It’s not a horror film, and the FrightFest badging that’s it’s being promoted with is not that helpful.

Molly (Cecilia Milocco) is still dreaming about a sunny moment in her past with her former partner, but this lover is no more, and she has to carry on with her life alone. We feel her anxiety as she enters her apartment – she has replaced one type of prison with another. But it’s not long before she starts to hear knocking from the ceiling and walls. It sounds like Morse Code, a cry for help… and then she hears sobbing.

Molly desperately tries to locate the source of the noise, but her neighbours are unable to help. She’s treated like the ‘crazy woman down the corridor’ and this is where the film really excels. What if Molly is really making this up? It seems more likely than a conspiracy of gaslighting by her fellow tenants, and right to the end we have these underlying doubts. I’ll say no more, but at 78 minutes this is just the right length to sustain the story.

Verdict: A strong central performance, an air of anxiety and a big question mark over the credibility of our witness makes for a fascinating thriller – just don’t expect a horror movie. 8/10

Nick Joy