Paolo Strippoli returns with another deft blend of drama and horror
All families have secrets, but not all of them alter the fate of every member. The Spiral (titled L’Estranea, “the female stranger” in its native Italian) is a dark family drama that follows a single choice and watches its consequences fracture a family over the course of two decades. Writer-director Paolo Strippoli’s fourth feature arrives a year after The Holy Boy, continuing his haunting exploration of trauma, isolation, identity, and guilt, while further solidifying his status as one of contemporary Italian genre cinema’s most compelling voices.
Set in 2026, the film opens with Anna (Jasmine Trinca) arriving in Rome and making her way through a torrential rainstorm to the apartment of her daughter, Alice (Romana Maggiora Vergano). As floodwaters rise around the battered building, a visibly shaken Anna finally unburdens herself, recounting a tragedy and the mysterious woman who has appeared at pivotal moments throughout their family’s history.
Through a series of flashbacks and chapter-based storytelling that shifts perspective between mother and daughter, Alice reveals a side of their shared past that has remained hidden for more than twenty years. At that time, Anna and her husband Walter (Adriano Giannini), a prominent businessman, sit atop the wealthy and influential Colonna family. Their son Tobia (Alessandro Carbonara) is an emerging football talent, while young Alice stands on the brink of her first major acting breakthrough.
The family’s recent move into a new home is meant to be celebrated with a lavish party, but an unexpected incident sends them rushing to the hospital. Faced with a consequence that threatens to alter Alice’s future forever, Anna finds herself desperate and praying for intervention in the hospital chapel. There she encounters the Stranger (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi). After a carefully choreographed exchange, an offer is made: save the future of one child at the cost of another. As the story unfolds, so too do the consequences of this Faustian bargain. What begins as a single decision sets off a domino effect that ripples through the years, impacting every member of the family and ultimately leading to the present day, when the final price must be paid.
Strippoli and co-writer Salvatore De Chirico weave together ideas of fate, free will, and self-inflicted suffering. We all make choices, exercising our best judgment, yet circumstance often clouds our vision and pushes us toward what seems like the lesser of two evils. At its heart, The Spiral is about a mother’s love and her inability to let go of responsibility. Anna desperately tries to hold her family together, steering them toward her idealized vision of who they should be while preserving their social standing. That need for control extends across every aspect of their lives, from careers to personal identity and sexual orientation.
Trinca is magnificent as a woman whose pride and determination to elevate her family become increasingly destructive. Giannini is equally effective as the imposing Italian patriarch, emotionally distant and consumed by image, status, and appearances. The younger members of the Colonna family are portrayed impressively across multiple ages, but it is Maggiora Vergano who carries much of the film’s emotional weight. She emerges as a potent presence throughout, serving not only as a foil to her mother but as a counterbalance to the many competing forces pulling at the narrative. Meanwhile, Bruni Tedeschi delivers perhaps the most entertaining depiction of a demonic force since Peter Stormare’s unforgettable turn in Constantine. She is a devil in designer clothing, elegant, seductive, and unnervingly composed, carrying an undercurrent of menace beneath every smile. Equal parts temptation and predator, she exudes the unsettling patience of a snake waiting to strike.
The consequences of Anna’s bargain fuel years of mounting tragedy, parental guilt, and Catholic shame. The film rarely grants her respite as she continues to dig herself deeper into a hole of her own making. While this cyclical descent occasionally becomes repetitive, it remains consistently compelling as the walls close in around her. The chapter structure further enhances this effect, with segments becoming progressively shorter as the film approaches its climax. The result not only mirrors the narrative’s downward spiral but also conveys the tightening grip of fate around its embattled matriarch.
Once again, Strippoli demonstrates an exceptional command of tone and atmosphere. The Spiral is frequently disorienting, steeped in macabre dread and devilish mischief. Quentin Collette’s discordant sound design and Cristiano Di Nicola’s hazy cinematography combine to create a striking visual language filled with symbolic imagery, unconventional framing, and dizzying camera angles that reinforce the film’s central motif.
The Spiral is a meticulously constructed effort, delivering a powerful family drama wrapped around a dark, monkey’s-paw-style horror premise, balancing tragedy with an unexpectedly sharp thread of humor. Paolo Strippoli confirms his credentials as a filmmaker with a remarkable talent for blending psychological horror, family dysfunction, and emotional tragedy into something both unsettling and deeply human.
