Anyway! On to the post! I watched Damsel recently, the Netflix adaptation of what I learnt too late was a book. I would have like to have read it first. That’s beside the point. I watched the film, and here’s what I thought…
It was good!
Okay, my longer thoughts.
I thought I knew where it was going. I thought it was going to be a fun fantasy story about a kick-arse young woman kicking arse. And it was that, absolutely.
But it was also at times, quite terrifying. There were aspects of it that were genuinely horrifying; from scenes of brutal deaths to aspects of psychological horror, this movie was not as cheesy-action as I thought.
Our heroine’s introduction to the dragon to whom she’d been sacrificed is what first made me sit up straight. All those poor, poor birds. It struck me as particularly terrifying - as it was meant to be, no doubt. I cannot imagine how scary it would have been to actually experience it for real (yes, I know it’s a work of fiction, but do try to actually put yourself there).
The reveal is also really quite scary. The dragon is not just a mindless, hungry beast; but sentient. The sacrifice she demands turned into a psychotic game of chase in which the point is the terror of the sacrifice. The dragon taunts, mocks, and even lets her prey escape a few times just to prologue the hunt. I would not have made it.
I’m not going to recollect the entire film here, except to say that I guessed fairly early on why everything was happening, so the reveal was no great surprise. What did surprise me is the ending.
I don’t think it’s a spoiler to note that, of course, our clever, determined and courageous heroine wins. But it’s not the victory similar movies of the 90s or even 00s would have given us. Certainly, she saves herself (and her sister). But it’s not the manner of victory you might expect of a film like this. It certainly wasn’t for me, having been raised on these kinds of stories.
I’m treading as lightly as I can so I don’t give too much away, as the film is still pretty new out (just four days) and I want to encourage you all to watch it for yourselves. But the ending was very satisfying. The evil was indeed vanquished. And that’s all I’m going to say about it.
It was great. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Do watch it, if you can.