A One Mann’s Movies review of “Went Up The Hill” (2025, 3.5*, ’15’).
The thing I like LEAST about “Went Up The Hill” is the title, which is simply a clumsy play on the fact that the two main characters are called Jack and Jill. There isn’t even a hill! But other than that, this is an interesting New Zealand-made horror/thriller starring the wonderful Vicky “Corsage” Krieps and Dacre Montgomery (from TV’s “Stranger Things” and also “Elvis“). It is the second feature for the up-and-coming NZ-born writer/director Samuel Van Grinsven.
What some may struggle with here is the icky-ness of some of the coercion that happens within the film. But that will clearly be a very subjective thing.
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Plot:
At a remote house in the wilds of a frozen New Zealand winter, Jack turns up unannounced at the funeral of his mother, Elizabeth, where her grieving partner Jill is trying to come to terms with her loss. It turns out that Elizabeth was the birth mother of Jack but they were separated when he was just a child. Each night Jack and Jill are alternately possessed by the spirit of Elizabeth as buried secrets emerge.
Certification:
UK: NR; US: NR. (The film has not been rated by the BBFC or MPAA, but is a 16R in New Zealand for “Domestic violence, sex scenes & deals with suicide.” I think it would likely be a 15/R in the UK/US.)
Talent:
Starring: Vicky Krieps, Dacre Montgomery, Sarah Peirse.
Directed by: Samuel Van Grinsven.
Written by: Jory Anast & Samuel Van Grinsven.
Running Time: 1h 40m.
Summary:
Positives:
- A really interesting take on the tired old body-possession genre.
- Krieps and Montgomery deliver great performances.
- A sex scene in here is genuinely erotic.
Negatives:
- The film is extremely dark in places (optically) and it is difficult (on a poor screen) to make out what is going on.
- The film is extremely dark in places (thematically) and it may disturb some viewers with where it goes. Trigger warnings abound!
Full Review of “Went Up The Hill”:
A spooky and disturbing premise.
Body-possession movies are ten-a-penny, but at least this film tries to approach the subject from an interesting angle. Here we have a recently deceased woman communicating with her partner (Vicky Krieps) and estranged son (Dacre Montgomery) through the other’s body while they are both asleep. So all very “Nightmare on Elm Street” in a way. While they are both asleep, Jack dreams of seeing Jill come into his room and declare herself to be his mother. But when they awake, they are physically in the same bed together, suitably embarrassed. They dismiss it as a bizarre sleepwalking incident, but the next night Jack appears to Jill claiming to be Elizabeth in both body and spirit.
A genuinely erotic sex scene but some icky connotations.
A couple of nights in and Elizabeth (as Jack) wants to continue conjugal relations with Jill and there follows a highly erotic love-making scene where the naked couple embrace and there is penetrative sex. Now, the lesbian couple don’t seem to notice that they seem to have a big penis involved here when (before she died) they had to make do with a sex toy!”. But, no matter, a good time was had by all. For a woman in her 40’s, Vicky Krieps really does have an incredibly sexy body. With some clever lighting and editing, the older woman and young man really do turn up the heat in a most spectacular way, while still remaining artfully tasteful. Both Krieps and Montgomery deliver superb performances in what is – for the most part – a two-hander movie.
Now, it is at this point that some viewers may have a distinct problem with the narrative. Do you remember the film “WW:84” where Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) sort of brought back to life her long-deceased love Steve (Chris Pine) by occupying the body of a ‘Handsome Man’ (Kristoffer Polaha) as a sort of sexy meat-puppet? Now there was a LOT of internet furore at the time about this, with some basically saying on social media that the fact that Wonder Woman had sex with ‘Steve’ was tantamount to rape since ‘Handsome Man’ never consented to the action. (“Now, fella, I’m bringing you round for just a second just to ask you a quick question…. you’re lying here naked with Gal Gadot… are you happy for her to fuck you..? Or not?” {snort!})
We are obviously in similar territory here, since Elizabeth is possessing Jack and forcing him to have sex with Jill, a woman (albeit, again, an extremely attractive one) that up until the day before he had never met and who he had never expressed any sexual interest in. There’s the added slightly icky issue here that since Jack was Elizabeth’s son that this also feels just one-degree removed from incest.
Emerging secrets.
I won’t give any spoilers for how the plot develops, but though these liaisons over multiple nights, important secrets emerge: both about Jack’s childhood and also about Jill’s marriage to Elizabeth. All of this leads to some fraught exchanges and a new movie game which I will choose to call ‘Trigger Bingo’. (More below).
Dark.
The themes are dark, but so also are some of the scenes with a lot of roaming around at night that makes what is going on somewhat difficult to perceive. (I was watching this on an Air New Zealand flight, so viewing conditions were less than ideal). If you are going to watch this one, and it’s not in a cinema, then hopefully you have a decent quality 4K TV to watch it on and you will have no issues.
Triggers.
As I said above, this film could really have been named “Trigger Bingo”. As well as the potential, if slightly oblique, angles of rape and incest referenced above, there are also themes of suicide, child abuse, marital abuse and self-harm that are covered. (Create a card and tick them all off as you watch!)
Summary Thoughts:
This is an interesting horror thriller that goes to some interesting, and sometimes disturbing places. The ending came across as a little bit flat, else I would have probably given it a slightly higher rating. But it is still a good watch and worth seeing for Vicky Krieps alone, who is again on good form here.
Where to watch?
Trailer:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sI3uvZy0yQ.
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