Movies
‘Pretty Lethal’ SXSW Review – Ballerinas Slay in Bloody Action Comedy
Dune actor and Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet has taken a lot of heat for his recent remarks about ballet, which makes the arrival of Pretty Lethal amusingly timely. The bloody revenge thriller harbors unwavering reverence for the dedication and athleticism of ballet, so much so that it transforms a young ballet troupe into elegant killing machines, as if in direct response to the notion that the art form is outdated.
The troupe in question here can barely get along before they embark on a trip to Budapest to compete, but the voyage quickly derails with travel mishaps. That leaves the five ballerinas and their coach stranded in the remote countryside. They take refuge at the nearby Teremok Inn owned by former ballerina-turned-crime boss Devora (Uma Thurman).
The troupe’s bad luck continues when one of their own is unceremoniously dispatched, forcing the surviving gals to rally their skills to survive the night.
Debut feature filmmaker Vicky Jewson, working from a screenplay by Kate Freund, assembles a charming young cast very game for the humor and killer pirouettes. Maddie Ziegler steals the entire film as rough-and-tumble Bones, the lead ballerina from the wrong side of the tracks, as well as the good graces of spoiled Princess (Lana Condor). Rounding out the troupe are pure Christian girl Grace (Avantika) and sisters Chloe (A Quiet Place‘s Millicent Simmonds) and Zoe (Iris Apatow), all varying degrees of over the Princess/Bones feud.
That makes their survival plight an entertaining bonding experience as they realize their strength in numbers against an entire inn full of bad guys who mean them harm. Jewson keeps ballet at the forefront of it all, informing everything from fight choreography to production design. On the former, Pretty Lethal has a blast translating a ballerina’s skillset and ability to withstand a lot of pain for the sake of their art into inventive combat sequences that see the ballerinas forge makeshift weaponry and lethal grand battements. More noticeable is their strong form; these ballerinas take their art form seriously and never break, even in peril.
Pretty Lethal does take a bit of time for the girls to realize their strengths, though, with Freund’s surface-level script putting them in distressed damsel mode during the front half to establish the Inn’s backstory and the ballerina’s bubbly personalities.
The production design draws clear inspiration from John Wick, with the interiors of the Inn adorned in dim lighting, rich jewel-toned hues, and decor that blends ballet whimsy, thanks to Devora, and Hungarian crime boss grime. It feels too borrowed and nondescript for the effervescent protagonists and their more ditzy teen antics; this is a comedy through and through, even when spilling blood. Even the costuming comes across as a bit bland, with the girls forced into their plain white tutus, the perfect canvas for bloodletting, of course.
It’s a high-concept action-thriller that trades logic for entertainment, and fairly thinly written, but thanks to the fighting ballerinas and Uma Thurman’s commitment to scene-chewing villainy, Pretty Lethal winds up a pretty fun time. Jewson’s debut refuses to take itself very seriously, which winds up as its biggest strength outside of its fierce ballerinas.
Pretty Lethal made its world premiere at SXSW and releases on Prime Video on March 25.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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