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Vincenzo de Divitiis
•Val Di Fassa, December 5, 2010. As every year, the community of a small village in Trentino gathers to celebrate the feast of St. Nicholas, also known as the Krampus festival. On this occasion, the young people of the area, following a very ancient Christian tradition of Teutonic origin, parade through the streets until dawn dressed as devils with the bodies of goats in order to terrorize the naughty children. While the songs and dances are in full swing in an atmosphere very close to the infernal, a child named Tommi disappears without a trace. Five years later, a boy without identity is found in the outskirts of Naples: it is the turning point of the investigations, never interrupted by Commissioner Hannes Ortner, as the DNA test reveals that the boy is little Tommi who can thus return home to his parents. The return, however, is not as imagined and the child shows strange behaviors that induce his mother not to recognize her son and imagine, under the clear influence of popular beliefs, that he is none other than the reincarnation of evil.
Since the golden decades of our genre cinema, folklore and popular traditions have always represented a fertile source for many directors who have used them to create thrillers and horror films that have become cult and fundamental for many enthusiasts, just think of "The Demon" by Brunello Rondi and "Non si sevizia un paperino" by Lucio Fulci or more recent titles like "Controra" by Rossella De Venuto and "Janara" by Roberto Bontà Polito. A more than consolidated binomial to which the young author Stefano Lodovichi also adheres in his second work titled "In fondo al bosco".
Unlike the titles mentioned above, however, the geographical location leaves the south of our country to venture much further north, almost at the borders with Austria, and tell one of the most unsettling legends that Central Europe can boast: that of the Krampus. The myth tells that, during periods of famine, groups of young people from small mountain villages would dress up in furs and devil masks to plunder the surrounding villages, until they realized that the devil himself had infiltrated them, ready to sow evil. Intimidated by such presence, the boys turned to Bishop St. Nicholas to drive away Satan and from that day on the masked parade became an occasion to distribute gifts and scare the naughty children.
Starting from such a dense starting point of macabre atmospheres and symbolic meanings, Lodovichi manages to realize a tense, vibrant psychological thriller capable of delving into the depths of a crazy and unhealthy human psychology. Those who expect to attend an old-style Italian thriller will be deeply disappointed because "In fondo al bosco" is not the usual genre film, imitation of classic models, as many unfortunately see, but rather a film that takes as a pretext the supernatural elements of folklore and religion to embroider on them a family drama in which the echoes of the most famous crime cases of recent years can be recognized (the most evident being the Cogne crime).
The masterstroke succeeds in every way thanks to a solid screenplay, made of never banal dialogues and a meticulous work in the construction of the characters' psychologies that ranges from Linda, an unfaithful wife and eager to change life but lacking the courage necessary to leave her husband; Manuele, a man prey to guilt and suffering from the murder accusations leveled against him by an obtuse country and anchored in prejudices; Pietro, the boy's grandfather and obsessed with the idea of a demonic threat present within the body of his grandson. Such a description lets one guess that the forest mentioned in the title is nothing other than a metaphor for the intricate situation in which this family nucleus finds itself so decimated by lies and betrayals.
The fact that the supernatural element is put in the background, however, should not deceive and make one believe that the director is lacking in horror film language. On the contrary, there are numerous sequences that manage to instill a good dose of tension, enhanced by the use of dark atmospheres and dark tones and especially by the ability to exploit the snowy landscapes and the claustrophobic forests of Trentino that at night take on the appearance of a nefarious and diabolical labyrinth. A small pearl of horror cinema is the scene of Linda's nightmare in which a terrifying demon appears in the dim light, very similar to those seen in the BlumHouse-branded films, whose makeup is well cared for and consistent with the strong emotional value it takes on during the story.
The whole is seasoned by Lodovichi's skill in pacing the story's rhythms that become increasingly hectic as the minutes pass and by an ending thanks to which the cards on the table are completely reshuffled and the viewer loses any certainty acquired up to that moment.
To be noted in the cast, in addition to the guarantees Camilla Filippi and Filippo Nigro, the surprising performance of the young Teo Achille Caprio, excellent in giving the right mysterious and malevolent charge to a character of difficult interpretation.
"In fondo al bosco", in conclusion, is a really well-made film, a small lesson on how to tell the drama of a family without resorting to the usual tragic and whispered tones by combining them with the refined language of genre cinema.
