The Ones Who Grieve Review (2026 Fantastic Fest)

**Maverick director Quarxx resuscitates the New French Extremity with an unsavoury folk horror featuring domestic abuse, religious venom and zombies set in an alternate late 1800s France.**

Demented God botherer Jacob is a “masker”. A position that involves him neutralising anyone in the vicinity affected by a zombie plague called ‘The Black Veil’. Once he’s pulled out all the teeth and stitched shut the eyes and mouths of those infected, he padlocks a hand-carved wooden mask around their heads, abandoning them in the countryside to be “reclaimed by the darkness.” His first victim early in the film is a child, and this is an equitable barometer as to whether you want to dive any deeper into its bleak abyss.

Feared by most of the village, Jacob hides behind the Bible to act exactly as he pleases, including inflicting a life of physical and mental pain on his own family. Spouting scripture to excuse his horrific abuse, his wife gorges herself as a coping mechanism, and his gentle daughter Zélie is a broken husk of nihilism.

Jacob’s oppression and cruelty escalate in alignment with his apparent theistic immunity until he reaches levels of obscene moral bankruptcy that Zélie can no longer endure. Her fanatical father is soon to find out that narcissistic dehumanisation is not without consequences.

Those Who Grieve is not for the faint-hearted. It jabs relentlessly at the senses, daring you not to look away. Its heinous insinuation, graphic gore, and inexhaustible appetite for torment will shake you. Those looking for a fix of feel-bad cinema will not be disappointed. Indeed, it rivals Dancer in the Dark and Nothing Bad Can Happen in its depiction of human debasement.

Many will question the motivation of this ruthless film as perverse voyeurism. Dismiss it as nothing more than misogynistic torture porn screaming for attention and infamy. A cynical exercise in exploitation, legitimised by historical camouflage to smuggle sadism under the radar of sensibility. Others will find it just too sad to stomach.

The real question is whether Quarxx has imbued his blatantly controversial movie with enough social context, artistry, and intelligence to make its unyielding spitefulness relevant. The answer is an unequivocal yes. In giving ultra-zealot Jacob Van Veren a platform, he has not only unleashed one of the most evil screen villains of all time, but a scathing indictment of the most common incitements to violence against women and girls.

Domestic abuse is a cancer that can fester privately behind closed doors. With this harrowing microcosm of gaslighting and coercive fuckery, Quarxx forces us to break in and taste the weeping pus of controlled suffering. He exposes with unblinking clarity the religious hypocrisy that nourishes the rotten roots of male toxicity.

In a modern world that seems to be intent on imposing feministic regression, where presidents and hugely subscribed influencers minimise and devalue women, using art to push back is vital. The emotionally immature machoism is beginning to trickle down throughout society, and films like this show what can happen if it becomes a tide.

The period setting is a hypothetical. Utilising an alternative past proves to be a masterstroke rather than a distraction as Quarxx weaves a plethora of ideas and themes into its speculative fabric. Transporting them to a divergent timeline affords a delicious satirical sheen that is by turns hilarious and sobering.

The depiction of Tesla’s electrical revolution and its early pylons allows for the lampooning of conspiracy theorists. One companion thread explores the ethics of electroshock therapy, while others explore sexual frustration, youthful rebellion, damaging misinformation, and patriarchal suppression.

Although there are sly nods to George A. Romero’s Day of the Dead, Antichrist, the original Martyrs, Hammer Horror, and even Whistle Down the Wind (1961), the film stops well short of homage. Its distinct identity and eccentric trajectory make for a singular viewing experience that challenges expectations instead of rearranging proven methodologies. You won’t see another movie like it, and you may be glad of that.

Somehow Quarxx manages to thrust zombie flesh munching, bumpkin humour, scientific caricature, and empathetic philosophy into his hectic mélange without it feeling overstuffed. Make no mistake, this shocking film is a debilitating endurance test with a devastatingly heartless conclusion. However, it possesses the courage, ingenuity, and intellect to make its nasty knife twisting immensely worthwhile.

★★★★★

North American Premiere on Sep 18th at 2026 Fantastic Fest / Thierry Frémont, Zelie Rixhon, Isabelle Anciaux, Jean-Baptiste Maunier, Ophélia Kolb, Fabien Houssaye, Antony Cinturino, James Joint / Dir: Quarxx / WTF Films