The Five Devils

If you walked into a room right now and caught a sudden, sharp whiff of the specific perfume your mother wore in 1994, your brain would probably short-circuit. Science tells us that smell is the sense most closely linked to memory, but Léa Mysius’s The Five Devils takes that biological fact and turns it into a high-stakes, supernatural thriller. It’s a film that feels like it’s being told through a haze of woodsmoke and chlorine, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since the credits rolled.

I caught this one on a rainy Tuesday while my radiator was making a rhythmic clicking sound that perfectly matched the film's brooding, percussive score. It’s the kind of movie that demands that sort of atmosphere—a little cold, a little unsettling, and deeply intimate.

A Nose for Trouble

The story follows Vicky (Sally Dramé), a lonely eight-year-old girl with a "gift" that borders on a curse. She has a preternatural sense of smell. She doesn’t just identify scents; she collects them, labels them, and recreates them in glass jars like a tiny, obsessed chemist. Her primary subject is her mother, Joanne (Adèle Exarchopoulos), a woman who seems to be perpetually simmering with a resentment she can’t quite name.

When Vicky’s estranged aunt Julia (Swala Emati) suddenly reappears, the delicate, chilly balance of their household is shattered. Julia’s scent is different—it’s dark, spicy, and dangerous. When Vicky captures it, she discovers that sniffing the concoction doesn’t just bring back memories; it physically transports her back in time to witness the traumatic, secret-filled past of her parents and her aunt.

Adèle Exarchopoulos, who most of us remember from the explosive Blue is the Warmest Color, is incredible here. She has this unique ability to look completely exhausted and vibrantly alive at the same time. In this current era of "prestige horror" and "elevated genre," she provides the grounded, human heart that keeps the more fantastical elements from drifting off into absurdity.

The Gritty Magic of 35mm

In an age where every third movie looks like it was polished to a digital sheen by a committee of algorithms, The Five Devils feels wonderfully tactile. Shot on 35mm film by Paul Guilhaume, the movie has a grain and a depth that makes the French Alps look both majestic and claustrophobic. You can practically feel the cold water of the lake where Joanne swims every morning.

Léa Mysius (who previously directed the excellent Ava) understands that for a "fantasy" movie to work in 2022, it needs to be dirty. It needs sweat, bruised skin, and bad karaoke. Speaking of which, there is a sequence involving Bonnie Tyler’s "Total Eclipse of the Heart" that is genuinely one of the most effective uses of a pop song I’ve seen in years. It’s not just a needle drop; it’s a narrative pivot point that reveals the deep, queer longing at the center of the film.

Most time travel movies spend way too much time explaining the physics; this one just asks you to sniff the jar and keep up. It’s a refreshing change of pace. I don't need to know the "rules" of Vicky’s gift because I’m too busy watching the look on Julia’s face as she realizes she’s being haunted by her own future niece.

Small Budget, Big Ambition

This is a true indie gem, produced for a relatively modest $3.3 million. That might sound like a lot of money to you and me, but in a landscape dominated by $200 million Marvel sequels, it’s basically pocket change. It’s proof that you don’t need a massive CGI budget to tell a story that spans decades and dimensions; you just need a clear vision and a cast that is willing to get weird.

Interestingly, Swala Emati was primarily a singer-songwriter before this, and her performance as Julia is hauntingly still. She carries the weight of the film's "villain" role, though you quickly realize she’s just another victim of a small town’s intolerance and the crushing weight of family expectations. The film manages to weave in themes of race and sexuality without ever feeling like it’s checking boxes for the "representation" discourse. It just feels like a lived-in, complicated reality.

The production was actually delayed by the pandemic, which gave Mysius more time to refine the script. That precision shows. Every scent Vicky bottles corresponds to a specific emotional beat, creating a sensory map of a tragedy that was set in motion long before she was born.

The Five Devils is a strange, beautiful beast. It’s a family drama, a queer romance, and a supernatural mystery all rolled into one smoky glass jar. While the ending might feel a bit rushed for some, the journey there is so atmospheric and well-acted that it’s easy to forgive a few narrative leaps. If you’re tired of the same old franchise formulas and want something that feels like it was hand-crafted with a bit of obsession, this is your next watch. Just don't blame me if you start sniffing your old clothes to see if you can travel back to high school.