**SPOILERS**
I felt sickened from the start. This film was set beautifully, the sight alone of the young girls dressed similarly in white in the opening scene was enough to pre-empt the questionable family dynamics for me. And then it just kept escalating until it reached a horrific level. I keep seeing reviews that compare this to Lanthimos' Dogtooth in the way it focuses on the institution of family as well as similarities with the film's cinematic elements, such as use of silence. The main difference for me was how Miss Violence, considerably a product of the Greek 'Weird Wave', is on a completely different side of the spectrum of weird than Dogtooth. The violence and power relations aside, Dogtooth's disturbed themes were a bit absurdist and I found myself laughing uncomfortably a few times ("Mum, two little zombies!"). Miss Violence's weirdness felt less absurd and not at all laughable. The characters' had a more accurate understanding of the world and in effect it made the disturbing themes of abuse more horrific. Brilliantly directed, I couldn't stop watching this film even when it made me very uneasy as the narrative sequence had me wanting to see if all my horrible assumptions were going to be confirmed... and indeed they were exceeded in all the worst ways. I don't know if I would have watched this knowing how central the child sexual exploitation and abuse would be to the story. I don't regret watching it though and so respect the construction of suspense, tension and the representation of the family not being an ideal institution as it is commonly portrayed in general Greek culture and past cinema.
I felt sickened from the start. This film was set beautifully, the sight alone of the young girls dressed similarly in white in the opening scene was enough to pre-empt the questionable family dynamics for me. And then it just kept escalating until it reached a horrific level. I keep seeing reviews that compare this to Lanthimos' Dogtooth in the way it focuses on the institution of family as well as similarities with the film's cinematic elements, such as use of silence. The main difference for me was how Miss Violence, considerably a product of the Greek 'Weird Wave', is on a completely different side of the spectrum of weird than Dogtooth. The violence and power relations aside, Dogtooth's disturbed themes were a bit absurdist and I found myself laughing uncomfortably a few times ("Mum, two little zombies!"). Miss Violence's weirdness felt less absurd and not at all laughable. The characters' had a more accurate understanding of the world and in effect it made the disturbing themes of abuse more horrific. Brilliantly directed, I couldn't stop watching this film even when it made me very uneasy as the narrative sequence had me wanting to see if all my horrible assumptions were going to be confirmed... and indeed they were exceeded in all the worst ways. I don't know if I would have watched this knowing how central the child sexual exploitation and abuse would be to the story. I don't regret watching it though and so respect the construction of suspense, tension and the representation of the family not being an ideal institution as it is commonly portrayed in general Greek culture and past cinema.