La Spirale: a Faustian nightmare for Paolo Strippoli after The Holy Boy

Paolo Strippoli’s horror film La Spirale has been selected by Italy as its submission for the Best International Feature Film Oscar. The film was presented at Venice and Toronto before its selection at the Chicago International Film Festival 2026. Strippoli’s previous work, The Holy Boy, received mixed reception. La Spirale transforms a family chronicle into a supernatural nightmare centered on guilt, sacrifices, and pacts with the devil. Rather than relying on spectacular effects, the director introduces the supernatural through ordinary gestures and intimate dramas, with the shift toward the fantastical occurring almost imperceptibly until domestic life becomes an unsettling territory.

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