Hotel (2003) – Jessica Hausner.

Irene (Franziska Weisz), a sensitive, pretty, increasingly anxious young woman takes a position at a Hotel, she then discovers that the previous employee she replaced, only just recently disappeared without a trace, seemingly engulfed by the surrounding, ill omened forest! A uniquely unsettling vision, captivatingly visual, eerily off-beat, and seductively mysterious, Hotel can be read as a glacial thriller, refracted darkly through a folk horror lens. With immaculate performances, and exquisite photography, what I found most compelling about Hotel are those elements the director chose not to reveal, thereby allowing imaginations to run rampant over the especially Grimm horrors that befell the doomed young women! The blurb on the Artificial Eye DVD references Hitchcock, Lynch and Haneke, and for me, Hotel also recalls Ulrich Seidel, and the earlier works of Aki Kaurismaki. Completed over 20 years ago, Jessica Hausner's sublime, desperately inhospitable Hotel is ripe for rediscovery, and remains utterly essential viewing for all those who appreciate artfully enigmatic chills.