Nightsiren is an early 2020 Slovakian/ Czech production that attempts to blend light folk horror & mystery elements into a feminine lead small town drama. It’s certainly a well-shot affair, with an effectively captured woodland setting, as well as a largely decent enough cast, with subtle touches of moody/ lightly unease atmospherics. The thing is it’s more of a slow/drawn-out drama than anything else- it often plods, and at points downright drags. Here from the folks at UK’s Arrow Video is a Blu-Ray release of the film- taking in a commentary track, and a few other extras.

Nightsiren ( aka Svetlonoc) is from the 2022. It was directed/co-written by Trnava, Slovakia-born Tereza Nvotová. She has four features and four shorts/TV series to her name. Feature lengthwise she released thus far Jezís je normální! (2008) a documentary regarding a Christian cult, teen drama Filthy (2017), and Meciar (2017) which is a doc regarding Slovakian political corruption.

The film is set in a small present-day Slovakian village- which is high up in the mountains &  surrounded by forests. Its lead/ main focus is twenty-something Šarlota (Natália Germáni)- with the film opening with her return to the village of her childhood. We find out via flashbacks that as a youth her younger sister fell off a cliff edge after following her, which was shortly followed by the burning down of her log cabin home. 

The villages are a decidedly superstitious bunch- believing that a middle-aged woman living away from everyone else is a witch, and is behind everything that has gone wrong in the village. She seemingly disappeared some years ago, and now Šarlota has moved back into her old cabin.

The film initially feels like it’s going to focus on exactly what happened to Šarlota as a child & why her home burnt down, but this isn’t fully told/ resolved until the final quarter of the one hour & fifty minutes. Most of the film regards the blossoming relationship between Šarlota &  rather mysterious herbalist  Mira (Eva Mores), the village's superstitions, repeated flashbacks, and subtle witch/ horror touches.

Nightsiren is very much of a barely burning drama than anything else- with the genre elements left very low-key. The whole thing largely crawls along- yes we do get moments of (very) subtle unease, as well as foreboding atmospherics- but these never really develop. We get the odd touches of quirky comedy, and a fair bit of woodland-based content- including a few tripped-out moments.

The issue here is that neither of our female leads is that animated or interesting- so as the whole thing focuses on their drama/ interaction there is little pull/interest here, and as the mystery side of things is large focusing on the replaying footage again & again one starts to lose interest. I’d say there certainly is promise here- but the whole thing runs way too long at just shy of the two-hour mark, and the more fascinating/ subtle creepy touches just aren’t developed fully enough. So as a result, Nightsiren is just ok-  and will appeal if you are looking for a feminine drama with very reduced mystery/ horror elements, which are at such a level you couldn’t even be bracketed as post-horror.                

This new Blu-Ray takes in a fairly good selection of extras. There's a commentary by film critic/ writer/ feminist  Kat Ellinger- and as always this is a very well-researched & thought-provoking affair. She talks about the uses of chapter headings and the way they play with archetypes – apparently, the idea of these came late in the film's production. She talks about how this is not a genre film- being more of a drama/woman's film, with elevated horror undertones.  She discusses how the whole thing is a very human story, as well as weaving in elements of Slovak culture/ legends. We find out that both the film’s director & writer are from urban Slovakia- been influenced by the project via a book they read.  She discusses the liminal and uncanny feel of the film's forest-bound scenes. Later on, she talks about the use of the hero’s journey in the film.  She mentions how she feels Peter Strickland's first film  Katalin Varga (2009) compares to the film to hand.  Talks about how the archetypes of paganism and witches appear in the film, and more. So an excellent track- which I enjoyed, though I’m afraid it didn’t change my feelings on the film. 

We get two new video essays- Witches and Sisterhood( 11.23)  which looks at witches and the idea of “sisterhood” as it pertains to both biological bonds and feminism collectively by film critic and author Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. Taboo,( 5.57) which explores the relationship of femininity, the unknown and sexuality in Nightsiren by film critic and festival programmer Justine Smith. Lastly, we get a theatrical trailer.

The finished release comes with a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Beth Morris. A double-sided foldout poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Beth Morris. An Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Anton Bitel, Cerise Howard and Alexandra West.

So, while Nighsiren is not my thing I can appreciate the filmmaking talent & artistry behind it, and once again the folks at Arrow Video give us a great/ classy presentation of the film. With some interesting extras