The.devil-s.bath.a.k.a.des.teufels.bad.2024.ger... -

The Devil’s Bath is a difficult, beautiful, and profoundly sad film. It is not entertainment in the conventional sense but a piece of historical reclamation – giving voice to forgotten women who suffered in silence. If you are prepared for a slow, atmospheric, and deeply tragic exploration of faith and despair, it is one of the most powerful horror films of 2024. Approach with caution if themes of suicide, infanticide, or extreme depression are triggers.

The Devil’s Bath is a harrowing, slow-burn horror film from the acclaimed duo behind Goodnight Mommy (2014) and The Lodge (2019). Unlike their previous English-language thrillers, this film returns to their Austrian roots and is based on painstaking historical research. It is loosely inspired by court records and folk songs from 18th-century Austria, Germany, and Slovenia, specifically exploring the real phenomenon of "child murder by proxy" – a dark psychological loophole used by severely depressed women to seek divine forgiveness and escape what they saw as an unbearable earthly existence. The.Devil-s.Bath.A.K.A.Des.Teufels.Bad.2024.GER...

The film's title refers to a historical German phrase, "Des Teufels Bad" (literally "the devil's bath"), which described a state of profound, suicidal melancholia. The film is directly based on the research of historian Kathy Stuart, whose book Suicide by Proxy in Early Modern Germany documents dozens of cases where depressed individuals – overwhelmingly women – committed murder to trigger their own execution. They believed that if they confessed their crime in a state of contrition, God would grant them forgiveness, whereas suicide was an unforgivable act of despair. Authorities at the time were often complicit, viewing execution as a just and salvific end for such "penitent" sinners. The Devil’s Bath is a difficult, beautiful, and