“Its imagery, with its set of Barbie’s creepy sisters and the gloomy shots of small Italian mountain villages, does a lot of the heavy lifting, while Torre cleverly layers a deeper message underneath the mystery.”

Some things are best kept hidden. Such is the case with Isabella Torre’s debut feature Basileia. Not the film itself though, just the archaeological artefact whose discovery kickstarts a genre film that isn’t quite sure what genre it is, but is effective in creating atmosphere and offers a fascinating, if somewhat cryptic mythology. Set in Aspromonte, a mountain massif in Calabria in Italy’s southernmost region, nature itself becomes a character in this Jonas Carpignano-produced film (together with his father Paolo, as always; Carpignano’s films also have been set in the region consistently), while it also lightly touches on themes like immigration. Although the film runs out of steam in its final act, its imagery, with its set of Barbie’s creepy sisters and the gloomy shots of small Italian mountain villages, does a lot of the heavy lifting, while Torre cleverly layers a deeper message underneath the mystery.

Wolves roam a small Italian mountain village that at one point was populated but now seems to be a ghost town. How did this happen? It is an ominous start for a story that focuses on an unlikable protagonist known only by the moniker The Irishman, although he professes to be a Scotsman; to add to the confusion, he is played by Danish-American actor Elliott Crosset Hove, of Godland fame. Especially ominous when that protagonist ventures into a deserted Italian village armed with an old notebook that he hopes will lead him to a valuable and powerful artefact. “Those who bring flowers and honey and earth,” he reads. That sounds positive; if only he knew the rest of the text, as we will later.

He quickly sets to digging for treasure in the mountain forests, helped by a group of seemingly illegal immigrants. When police come to round them up, The Irishman flees, but then has to confess to his client, a rich local named Santo, that they’ve had a very costly setback. He is relieved of his task, but is determined to still find the artefact, if not for Santo then for himself. After sneaking out of the convent where he is treated for injuries sustained in his nighttime flight, he again enlists an immigrant, KeyKey (Koudous Seihon), to continue the search. With the help of local guide Igor (Nicola Pelle) with knowledge of the woods, they relatively quickly succeed in unearthing a beautiful gold box and other valuables.

What they unexpectedly also unleash though is a group of nature spirits in the form of three lanky and pale-skinned naked women, with long hair that flows past their buttocks, eyes in which all white has disappeared, and a notable absence of genitals. They evoke memories of the well-dwelling monster of Japanese cult horror classic Ringu, and their effects are roughly the same. Igor, who robbed his companions during the night, is the first victim, and it doesn’t take long for more villagers to mysteriously disappear.

What develops is a cat-and-mouse chase, as the film chooses to stick with The Irishman and KeyKey while alternating with the creepy spirits wreaking havoc in the town and its surroundings. The former is used to contrast the unlikability of The Irishman’s obsessions with the likability of the trustworthy immigrant from Burkina Faso, one of the few ‘good’ characters in the film, a pointed comment on the negative image of African immigrants in Southern Italy. Torre has problems handling the human side of the story though, and Basileia becomes murkier the more the film moves towards a conclusion.

The film fares much better when it switches to the angelic harbingers of death, even if their mythology is even more unclear. “Those who steal the breath of the living, who restore the balance that is lost.” Combined with Basileia‘s opening and final shots this hints that these nymphs, who eventually multiply, are a representation of nature taking back from a greedy humanity, itself represented by The Irishman and his client. What this has to do with the swarms of wasps that accompany the women is unclear, but at least the mystery keeps the interest level up through mood and strong visuals. Torre sets the film up as a typical spooky thriller, but despite her creepy ladies taking life after life Basileia never intends to frighten its audience and instead opts to pay more attention to the film’s themes. A faltering screenplay cannot completely destroy Torre’s first full-length effort. On the contrary, it is the film’s only weak spot, and even then only when it follows its human characters. But Torre’s directorial qualities are unquestionable, and the way Basileia intrigues and aims to dig deeper than cheap frights tips the scales solidly in the direction of success.