‘Her Will Be Done’ Review: French Village Folk Horror Is An “Impressively Made Miss”

Now available on VOD, the folk horror Her Will Be Done holds a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Its rating comes as no surprise thanks to its warm reception at Cannes, Sitges, BIFF, and Fantastic Fest. Her Will Be Done, directed and co-written by Julia Kowalski, was the main movie CinemAddicts co-host Bruce Purkey reviewed on our latest episode. Purkey was drawn to the feature’s unsettling atmosphere, impressive performances, and evocative score. But would those elements add up to an emotionally compelling experience?

Bruce Purkey was already interested in director Julia Kowalski’s work after seeing and recommending her short I Saw the Face of the Devil . Although this latest feature did not quite connect with him, his enthusiasm for the filmmaker remains.

“So I don’t hate this movie, and I still have a lot of interest in this filmmaker, and I hope for great things still to come,” said Purkey. “This is just to me like a really interesting failed experiment to some degree.”

The story centers on Nawojka (Maria Wróbel), a young woman residing in a small French village with her overprotective dad and brothers. She dreams of attending veterinary school and escaping an oppressive home life. The arrival of Sandra (Roxane Mesquida), a neighbor who is treated like a pariah in the community, leads to a possible union that could alter Nawojka’s life.

For Purkey, the film suggests compelling ideas about abuse, repression, and women attempting to escape a world that has confined them. His frustration comes from feeling that the storytelling withholds too much to make those ideas emotionally resonate.

“There’s all these symbolic moments of these main women characters trying to, like, be reborn and find their individuality and escape from this stifling world that they’re in,” he said.

The imagery interested him, but he wanted a clearer understanding of the characters’ experiences and what freedom would mean for them. Purkey’s issue was not that every mystery needed an explanation. Basically, he wanted something more tangible in the narrative.

“The script just needs a little bit more meat on the bones,” said Purkey. “I don’t need you to spell it out for me 100%.”

That disconnect was especially disappointing because so many other elements worked for him. Purkey praised the cold, rainy look of the film and felt its gritty surroundings fit the material. He also praised the central performances.

“The acting is all really impressive by our main characters,” he said. “They’re all believable in their roles.”

Ultimately, Purkey’s 2½-star rating reflects a film whose individual strengths impressed him more than the overall experience. Viewers drawn to elusive, atmospheric arthouse movies may have a different reaction.

***Listen to Bruce Purkey’s full review on CinemAddicts:

“If you really love these very esoteric, super art house, very non-narrative sort of movies that have a lot of mood and atmosphere, this might work for some of you,” said Purkey.

Calling Her Will Be Done “an impressively made miss,” Purkey will nevertheless be watching for what Kowalski does next.

“I still very much look forward to the next film by this filmmaker,” he said, “‘cause I think they have some great movies in them still.”

Check out the video version of Bruce’s review:

Have you seen Her Will Be Done? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

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