Belladonna of Sadness: A Witchy Film Worth Watching
Some films you watch, and some films feel like they are doing something to you while you sit there. Belladonna of Sadness falls into that second category. It is not casual, it is not background noise, and it is definitely not something you forget. It feels more like an experience than a storyline.
The film follows Jeanne, but this is not really about plot as much as it is about transformation. She begins soft, devoted, and open, and then something in her life shifts in a way that cannot be undone. What the film does differently is that it does not leave her in that space of loss. Instead, it shows what begins to grow from it, and that growth is not clean or easy to watch. It is intense, emotional, and at times overwhelming in a way that feels very real. There is a presence in the film that many interpret as the devil, but it feels more accurate to understand it as a part of her that was never allowed to exist. A voice, a hunger, a form of power that had been suppressed and suddenly has space to emerge. That is where the witch energy of this film really lives. Not in spells or rituals in the traditional sense, but in the shift from suppression to expression.
This is also what connects it to real history. During the European witch trials, women were often labeled as dangerous not because of magic, but because they stepped outside of what they were allowed to be. Too intuitive, too expressive, too independent. The film captures that energy from the inside rather than explaining it from the outside.
Visually, it is unlike anything else. The entire film moves like watercolor that refuses to stay contained. The imagery stretches, bleeds, and expands in a way that mirrors what Jeanne is experiencing internally. It feels less like watching something happen and more like witnessing someone become something new in real time.
This is why it stands out as a witchy film. It is not about aesthetic witchcraft or surface level symbolism. It is about power, desire, identity, and what happens when those things are no longer held back. It is uncomfortable at times, but that is also what makes it honest.
If you are drawn to films that explore transformation, feminine power, and the deeper layers of what it means to become, this is absolutely worth watching. It is not light, but it is memorable, and it stays with you long after it ends.
