For a lot of lesbians, Nicole Conn’s derided and ridiculed 1992 lesbian romance “Claire of the Moon” is considered being a horror movie.
The truth is that good, genuine lesbian horror films are in short supply.
All of that has changed with “Attachment” (Nordisk Films), now streaming exclusively on Shudder. The feature film debut by director/writer Gabriel Bier Gislason, “Attachment," not only expands the lesbian horror market but along with 2019’s “The Vigil” also shows there are stories worth telling in the Hebrew horror genre.
“Attachment” begins with a suitably meet-cute opening. Maja (Josephine Park), dressed like her former children’s TV character Elf Princess Carla, is running frantically through a Copenhagen library, late for a children’s story time event. She crashes into Leah (Ellie Kendrick), who has an arm-full of books. Of course, there’s a mix-up and the young women end up with the other’s books.
After the story time they exchange the books and end up back at Maja’s apartment where she makes them tea. Londoner Leah is doing “field work abroad” in Denmark. It’s her first time there, which she notes is odd because that’s where her mother is from.
With only a couple of days to spend together before she must return to London, Maja and Leah make the most of their time together. Short of renting a U-Haul, Leah cancels her travel plans and stays with Maja. But things take a strange turn when Leah, whom Maja has seen sleepwalk, has a seizure resulting in a broken leg.
Maja accompanies Leah on her journey back to London where she lives on the second floor of an apartment building she shares with her hyper-religious mother Chana (Sofie Gråbøl) who lives on the first floor. Chana is an overprotective mother, who babies Leah and dismisses Maja.
Some of Chana’s coldness stems from the fact that, as Chana puts it, Maja is a "goy." In fact, this seems to bother her more than the fact that Leah and Maja are in a relationship. However, Chana thinks nothing of barging into Leah’s bedroom at the most inappropriate times. Chana also taunts Maja with a story about a bowl that Maja broke (when Chana startled her), as another example of the way she wields maternal power.
Before long, bizarre things happen. A black candle is mysteriously lit every night. Maja hears the floorboards creaking at night. She discovers other strange things around Leah’s apartment. Chana insists Maja wear an amethyst amulet. Maja stumbles upon a religious bookstore owned by Leah’s uncle Lev (David Dencik), who at first cautions Maja about Chana.
Maja makes an effort to learn things about Chana’s religious sect, and Jewish mysticism, including the various superstitions, such as those about Golem and Dybbuks. In this way, “Attachment” is as scary as it is informative.
But nothing can prepare Maja for the horror to come. Beginning with the return of Leah’s seizures, which she has been having since childhood. One such childhood seizure resulted in the death of a young friend who came over for a playdate.
After a sabbath meal where, knowing that Maja has a peanut allergy, Chana put peanuts in the food they were eating, Leah is convinced that Chana was trying to kill Maja. She stops wearing her amulet and agrees to go back to Denmark and stay in Maja’s father’s summer house with her. While there, things take an even more ominous and terrifying turn.
As refreshing as it is frightening for the way it addresses subjects not unusually found in contemporary horror movies, “Attachment” is certified Kosher.
Rating: B+
Gregg Shapiro is the author of eight books including the poetry chapbook Fear of Muses (Souvenir Spoon Books, 2022). An entertainment journalist, whose interviews and reviews run in a variety of regional LGBTQ+ and mainstream publications and websites, Shapiro lives in Fort Lauderdale with his husband Rick and their dog Coco.
