"Alpha" Teaser: New Dark Coming-Of-Age Thriller From 'Titane' Director Julia Ducournau
After the success of Titane, Ducournau returns with a new coming-of-age tale that promises dark thrills and unsettling twists.
Coralie Fargeat’s surrealist horror The Substance was one of the rare films to be acknowledged by the Academy Awards last year. This is not just because it’s unusual for horror films to receive any nominations or prestigious recognition, but also because it was an extreme body horror fable that seemed destined to become a cult favorite, usually relegated to the underground midnight movie horror scene. Fargeat’s Oscar success, however, may have been the culmination of the recent wave of female horror filmmakers daring to push boundaries, as well as the levels of gore and shock value to maximum effect.
Fargeat is part of a current surge of French female body horror filmmakers, among them Julia Ducournau, whose 2021 identity-switching, vehicle-infatuation mindbender Titane was the toast of Cannes that year, taking home the coveted Palme d’Or award. One could argue that Ducournau paved the way for Fargeat’s Oscar run, as Titane broke through in a significant way, perhaps ushering in a new era of horror movies that fully embraced bold, unconventional storytelling while garnering critical praise for its daring approach to the genre and subject matter.
Well, it seems Ducournau has returned to the Croisette as her follow-up film, Alpha, will be making its world premiere at Cannes this week. Not much is known about the film, but if it’s anything like Ducournau’s previous works, Titane and her equally boundary-pushing, cannibalism-themed debut feature Raw, one can only expect another genre-defying mind trip where convention is thrown out the window.
Here’s what the film’s official synopsis tells us: “Alpha, a troubled 13-year-old lives with her single mom. Their world collapses the day she returns from school with a tattoo on her arm.”
Okay, not much there.
But something tells us that a tattoo on a little girl’s arm could lead to a coming-of-age journey full of unexpected twists and revelations we didn’t see coming.
And just going by Ducournau’s track record, her characters have always seemed to have a strong connection to something darker, more primal, and unsettling. Someone’s flesh is always a key element in Ducournau’s films, adding a visceral layer to her body horror aesthetic. Color us intrigued, indeed.
Written and directed by Ducournau, the film features newcomer Mélissa Boros in the title role of the 13-year-old “Alpha.”
Iranian-French actress Golshifteh Farahani (from Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson and Chris Hemsworth's Extraction films) plays Alpha’s mother.
The rest of the cast includes Tahar Rahim (A Prophet, Madame Web), Emma Mackey (Sex Education), and Finnegan Oldfield (Infested).
Alpha is part of the main competition at this week’s Cannes Film Festival.
With Neon Films handling its U.S. distribution rights (the same studio behind Ducournau’s Titane), the film is slated to open in U.S. theaters in October. Watch the film’s first teaser trailer, above.
