The Girl With the Needle

With her husband missing in action, Karoline (Vic Carmen Sonne), a young seamstress, struggles to survive in post-WWI Copenhagen. An affair with the owner of the clothing factory she works at brings temporary relief from her poverty, but leads to still worse complications. Left with few other options, she turns to a charismatic candy shop owner, Dagmar (Trine Dyrholm), who offers special services to women in need. But as it turns out, the woman’s placid façade hides deeper layers of disquiet.

Inspired by the real-life story of one of Denmark’s most infamous serial killers, The Girl with the Needle renders this true-crime story as an expressionist fairytale, with a nightmarish atmosphere reminiscent of Tod Browning and Carl Theodor Dreyer. Featuring lustrous black-and-white cinematography, an ominous soundscape, and bolstered by fearless performances by Sonne and Dryholm, it is a chilling, unforgettable look at the horrors that people are capable of—as well as the social conditions that make them possible.

It’s a black-and-white period piece invested with a supremely eerie folkloric edge – a bleak historical chapter made timeless, and all the more troubling for it.

Robbie Colin, Daily Telegraph

Just ineffable terror.

Kevin Maher, The Times

Like one of those fiendish knots that tighten the more you squirm, director Magnus von Horn’s The Girl With the Needle builds to a devastating climax, taut as piano wire.

Leslie Felperin, Hollywood Reporter