After turning our stomachs with cannibalistic coming-of-age debut Raw and making mechanophiliac magic with her Palme d’Or-winning follow-up Titane , body-horror queen Julia Ducournau returns with Alpha — a melancholy meditation on grief, heavily influenced by the AIDS epidemic.

Relative newcomer Mélissa Boros (with only one prior acting credit to her name, 2021’s Le Silence De Sibel ) plays the titular Alpha. A little spiky, a little rebellious, we first properly meet her at a teen house party, drunk and unconscious, with someone tattooing a bold, bloody “A” onto her arm. It’s an opening that channels Ducournau’s signature talent for crafting corporeal queasiness, all close-up shots of metal piercing skin that will make even the most inked individual wince. Those moments are f

See Full Page