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Nocebo: Predictable but Incisive Colonialist Chiller

Though most of us are familiar with the concept of a placebo, it’s malevolent sibling the nocebo is a less prominent notion, though one no less frequently encountered. If you’ve ever read up on a disease online and immediately given yourself all the key symptoms then you’ve had a run-in with the nocebo effect. Just as inert placebos can convince you they’ve had a positive effect, harmless nocebos can have a damaging effect on the mind and body. As one exchange here has it: “it’s all in the mind”/”what isn’t in the mind?”.

How this phenomenon applies to Nocebo is harder to pin down. The most obvious example is a key case of the psychosomatic effects of guilt manifesting as physical ailments, but there may be other examples of ‘nocebos’ throughout the film. Crucially, it’s pretty unambiguous that something manifestly paranormal is working its influence on the film’s characters.

The film opens with fashion designer Christine (Eva Green) celebrating the launch of her new line when she is the recipient of some distressing news, news that manifests as a diseased dog spreading its ticks onto her. That we the audience are party to this subjective experience arguably sets the film up for failure as it makes it too easy to guess what’s happened and what will happen.

After this prologue though, we jump ahead eight months to find Christine still wracked with imagined aches, twitches and pains. She has been suffering serious memory lapses, during one of which she apparently hired a new nanny Diana (Chai Fonacier) to help raise her stroppy daughter Roberta (Billie Gadsdon). Despite her husband Felix’s (Mark Strong) misgivings, the couple welcome the young Filipino woman into their home where she soon makes herself indispensable, caring for Roberta, cooking their meals and ministering to Christine’s ailments with her miracle home remedies. She claims the cause of Christine’s pain lies in a truth she has repressed and must confront to be freed, a truth you might not struggle too long to divine.

Chai Fonacier as Diana holding a piece of paper in Nocebo (2022)

That the story Nocebo is going for is pretty guessable is less than ideal, however that’s just the start of it. The devil’s in the details and Nocebo provides enough of them to still be interesting. The most intriguing are all associated with Diana and her backstory. Her folk remedies and ways of influencing the mind and body give the film its sinister lift. The spiritually sensitive and powerful South East Asian servant is a rather easy and reductive stereotype perhaps, but I have read at least one response from a Filipino viewer pleased with the accuracy of the practices and traditions as depicted. The film makes a credible appearance of having at least done its research and it pays off in the end result being a lot more intriguing than it would otherwise have been.

Cause frankly, some other parts of the story feel a bit thin. Christine’s pressures to put together her new range and Felix’s suspicions about the overfamiliar Diana’s intentions both come off as tired and formulaic. Strong’s rarely been the most compelling screen presence and his character is an unlikable bore. Green on the other hand does a very good job at keeping her character appropriately strung out and harried without losing audience sympathy prematurely. It’s really Fonacier’s film though. Her mysterious presence is welcoming and likable while still being intimidating and forceful. Our sympathies are with her from the start and she never loses them however inscrutable her motives may initially be.

Mark Strong as Felix examining a small red vial in Nocebo (2022)

This does rather result in a thriller where it’s less than clear of what we are supposed to be afraid and for whom? Diana seems like she can handle herself and whatever Christine and Felix have coming to them they seem likely to deserve. So it never does really sink its claws into you and is more of an ‘elevated’ or ‘not scary’ horror film. The real meat lies in the morality play angle, exposing the parasitic relationship the western world has to the parts of the world it exploits for its manufacturing concerns. The real horrors of globalization, modern-day colonialism and exploitation are what Nocebo really has its sights set on, and it hits its targets well with a creative approach that feels honest and accurate without being too didactic or artless.

There is a debate to be had about the current wave of so-called horror movies that dilute the genre with blatant social commentary and bend it to address their chosen themes in a way that can feel like it’s losing the narrative absorption and resultant somatic effect in the process. Nocebo is a classic example of this kind of film, one whose leftist politics and social conscience take precedent over the establishment of developed characters, a frightening atmosphere and visceral chills. It’s not a bad film by any means. The characters, atmosphere and chills are definitely still there, they just don’t feel like a priority and I could say the same about some other recent horror films I loved. Nocebo is less creative than they were but it still has its moments and should reward sympathetic audiences, but it might be one for casual viewers more than genre aficionados.

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Written by Hal Kitchen

Primarily a reviewer of music and films, Hal Kitchen studied at the University of Kent where they graduated with distinction in both Liberal Arts BA and Film MA, specializing in film, gender theory, and cultural studies. Whilst at Kent they were the Film & TV sub-editor and later Culture Editor of the campus newspaper InQuire and began a public blog on their Letterboxd account. Hal joined 25YearsLaterSite as a volunteer writer in May 2020 and resumed their current role of assistant film editor in November 2020.

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