Part of this feels appropriate to the lead character's PTSD she is traumatized beyond nuanced responses. Having no subtext flattens out the action, creating a same-ness in the scene progression.

The violence is appropriate (and the film is appropriately difficult to watch).

The issue with 'The Nightingale' isn't its violence, nor its portrayal of rape. 'The Nightingale' has already caused controversies at festivals, where people walked out, outraged at the multiple violent rape scenes. The film is filled with brutality from start to finish, over its grueling run-time ('The Nightingale' feels much longer than it is). Kent’s follow-up, 'The Nightingale,' is a completely different sort of film, with its own kind of horrors, different horrors, that of the ravages of colonialism, its violence, rape and murder.

Kent's capacious imagination and compassion drove 'The Babadook,' with its focus on a mother and son doing battle with a supernatural-style 'intruder.' The film worked on multiple levels, buzzing with potent ambivalent metaphors for grief, insomnia, parenting (especially single parenting, as well as parenting a so-called 'difficult' child). It played for months here in New York, a rare occurrence for an indie film from a first-time writer/director. It's been five years since Jennifer Kent's debut film, ' The Babadook,' which quickly took its place as one of the most effective horror movies in recent memory.

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