Religion and horror are often perfect partners, with the latter capable of twisting ideas of control, fanaticism, and the meaning of faith into nightmares that hit close to home. Classics like Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist ran with those themes to Oscar gold, but a wide range of acclaimed films have emerged from the subgenre over time, from Carrie with its depiction of life under a tyrannical parent, to more under-the-radar hits like Saint Maud, following a religious devotee who delusionally believes herself on a mission from God. At this year’s Fantastic Fest, The Ones Who Grieve will tap into those same themes in its North American premiere as it whisks viewers back to a plague-ridden France in the tail end of the 19th century. As part of Collider’s Exclusive Preview series, we’re excited to share a new image ahead of its arrival that illustrates the horrifying influence of fanaticism at such a dark time.
The Ones Who Grieve unfolds in the French countryside, which has been ravaged by a mysterious disease known only as The Black Veil. In the middle of the bleak reality is Zélie, a 17-year-old girl living in a household ruled with an iron fist by her deeply devout father, Jacob. A self-styled “Masker,” he subjects the sick and dying to brutal, inhumane purification rituals involving imprisoning them behind hand-carved wooden masks under the belief that he is saving their souls from damnation. Disturbed and sick of his tyranny, Zélie finds an opportunity after she heads out to a neighboring farm for food at her mother’s behest and finds a woman named Jane with a dark secret, a man plagued by his demons named Carmin, and later, Gabriel, an infected soldier who made his way into their barn and offers to kill Jacob for her. Before they can enact their plan, though, the father finds out and punishes her mercilessly for her betrayal, beginning a downward spiral into madness that begets countless tragedies.
Our exclusive image shows Jacob’s horrifying handiwork on a man in a river. He’s covered in scratches and wearing nothing but a cloth, and the mask clasped around his head, confirming that he’s infected. With its large, hollow eyes and haunting mouth combined with the rough exterior and metal bolts securing it, the headwear is downright haunting and feels more like a tool of torture than an act of mercy by a faithful man trying to help. His “purification” means walking the earth still riddled with disease, but now unable to see, eat, speak, or scream as he inevitably wastes away.
Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky
Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you’re not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.
🏕️Jason
🔪Michael
💤Freddy
🎈Pennywise
🪆Chucky
01
Something feels wrong. You can’t explain it — you just know. What do you do? First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty.
02
Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong? Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.
03
What is your most reliable survival asset? Every survivor has a quality the villain didn’t account for. What’s yours?
04
What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through? Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it.
05
You’re with a group when things start going wrong. What’s your role? Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn’t.
06
What’s the horror movie mistake you’re most likely to make? Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.
07
What’s your best weapon against something that can’t be stopped by conventional means? Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.
08
It’s the final scene. You’re the last one standing. How did you make it? The final survivor always has a reason. What’s yours?
Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated Your Best Chance Is Against…
Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.
Camp Crystal Lake · Friday the 13th
Jason Voorhees
Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.
He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn’t strategise, doesn’t adapt, doesn’t outsmart. He simply pursues.
Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.
Haddonfield, Illinois · Halloween
Michael Myers
Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it’s too late for anyone who isn’t paying close enough attention.
But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
Michael’s power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.
Elm Street · A Nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy Krueger
Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.
You are harder to destabilise than most. You’ve faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven’t looked away.
The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
Freddy’s greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.
Derry, Maine · It
Pennywise
Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.
The Losers Club didn’t survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise’s worst nightmare.
It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.
Chicago · Child’s Play
Chucky
Chucky’s greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it’s already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.
You don’t have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.
Who Is Involved in ‘The Ones Who Grieve’?
As the image shows, The Ones Who Grieve will be a bleak folk horror tale where the greatest monster is not the disease increasingly spreading through the land, but the self-proclaimed prophet wielding his religion as a tool for control. Thierry Frémont plays the terrifying role of Jacob after previously taking part in AMC‘s adventurous 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea prequel series, Nautilus. Joining him are Zélie Rixhon, Isabelle Anciaux, and Jean-Baptiste Maunier, while French filmmaker Quarxx takes the reins behind the camera. This will be the writer-director’s third film and a return to Fantastic Fest, after bringing his also downbeat sci-fi flick All the Gods in the Sky to Austin back in 2018. He co-wrote the screenplay to his latest with Frederic Soulier.
The Ones Who Grieve makes its North American premiere at Fantastic Fest on Friday, September 18, at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, Texas. Check out our exclusive image above and stay tuned here at Collider for more early looks at the event’s entries leading up to its first day on September 17. More information on all the titles heading to the genre event can be found on the official Fantastic Fest film guide.
