Attachment: Not Just Another Danish-English Same-Sex Jewish Horror Romance

By Liam Lacey

Rating: B

The film, Attachment offers something a bit different: A horror thriller about two women in love, an overbearing Jewish mother and demonic possession.  

Written and directed by first-time Danish director, Gabriel Bier Gislason (the son of  Susanne Bier), it’s a moody low-key psychological affair, free of schlock and gore, and ultimately, more of a romance than a scare fest. 

Maja and Leah (Josephine Park and Ellie Kendrick) get dybbuk lessons from Lev (David Dencik).

The film begins with a cute couple falling in love. Maja (Josephine Park) is a blond Danish actress in her 30s, formerly on a popular TV series, now dressed up as a Christmas elf performing for children in libraries. In short, she’s exceedingly goyish. But when she runs into Leah (Ellie Kendrick) a Jewish English grad student doing field work in Denmark, the attraction is instant and intense. They go for a drink and end up in bed together. 

When Leah heads back to London, Maya spontaneously decides to go with her. She moves into Leah’s flat in a house owned by Leah’s Orthodox Jewish mother, Chana (Sofie Gråbøl), who is also originally Danish, always popping up out of the shadows and very protective of her daughter.

There’s the clear influence here of Roman Polanski’s spooky apartment trilogy (Repulsion, The Tenant, Rosemary’s Baby), and a slow-build of strange behaviours. Maya was aware that Leah tended to sleepwalk when they were in Denmark. Then, she has a seizure which causes her to break her ankle. She goes into trances. Her body assumes strange postures. Something is clearly not right.

Mother Chana, while casually accepting of the same sex relationship, is about as welcoming as Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca. Chana mutters darkly, lights candles, spreading salt along the walls. She insists that Maja wear a special amulet.  Is she justifiably protective against supernatural evil or mentally ill? 

Maja, seeking more interfaith standing, wanders into a Jewish book store looking for a primer on “Jewish stuff.” The skeptical owner, Lev  (David Dencik) is dismissive until he notices her amulet, which he says is used to repel demons. He mentions the Jewish mystical tradition of the kabbala. 

“The Madonna thing, right?”says Maya. 

But the cat’s truly out of the bag when he tells her about dybbuks, souls of the dead who attach themselves to the living in traditional Jewish folklore. As the film unfolds, we learn that Lev has a direct interest in Leah’s predicament: He’s her uncle, and he gets involved in Maya‘s struggle to save her lover from dark forces.

Good performances, and the novelty of the situation, hold interest, as the drama moves from rom-com start through familiar bump-in-the-night scares to a conventional conclusion. 

There’s something a bit deeper here as well, a metaphoric exorcism, as Maya and Leah detach themselves from the conventions of patriarchal authority. But Attachment isn’t overly solemn in its messaging: It’s a love story, with more than usual cultural, and demonic, hurdles to overcome. 

Attachment. Written and directed by Gabriel Bier Gislason. Starring Josephine Park, Ellie Kendrick, Sofie Gråbøl and David Dencik. Attachment is available exclusively through the Shudder streaming service.