Cinematic trailblazer and Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau’s latest film is no less ambitious than her previous films RAW and TITANE, except here, she uses elements of body horror to tell a story of a different kind of horror to befall a family with a traumatic past.

Alpha, a rebellious 13-year-old, lives with her single mom, a doctor with an at-home practice amid the context of a strange new bloodborne disease. When Alpha returns from a house party, drunk, her mother discovers a new, amateur tattoo on her daughter’s arm. Worried she might have been infected by the same disease, their world is suddenly turned upside down, as fear invades their family unit, triggering a chain reaction which unleashes repressed trauma, memory and dread.