The Devil's Bath
Des Teufels Bad

The Austrian filmmaking team of writer/directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala bring to life this chilling tale based on the research and writings of Kathy Stuart regarding the religiously motivated practice of "suicide by proxy." Austrian musician Anja Plaschg gives a haunting performance as Agnes, a young woman who becomes depressed and dissatisfied with her recent marriage and begins to dream of escape and more "evil thoughts." The film unfolds like a work of folk horror and is based on historical criminal trial records of two cases of a crime that was not uncommon in German-speaking Christian communities in Central Europe during the seventeenth century. Franz and Fiala and cinematographer Martin Gschlacht create a lived-in world of creepy wooded forests, dark stone homes, and a church that seems as cold as the river where the villagers fish.