DRAGONFLY. An Intimate Film with the Soul of a Thriller

Dragonfly, the opening film of the 11th edition of Splat!FilmFest introduces the audience to an intimate yet tension-filled relationship – seemingly mundane, marked by stark realism, but underneath deeply unsettling, subtly drifting toward horror cinema. The film’s writer and director, Paul Andrew Williams, may already be familiar to the festival audience from his brutal revenge thriller Bull (2021), featured in the seventh edition of Splat!FilmFest.

This time, he brings to Poland an atmospheric British slow burner, whose final act alone justifies its inclusion in the Fear and Terror section. What’s more, the director watched the film together with the Polish audience, observing their reactions (such as laughter – because, surprisingly, there is humor here), and later joined a Q&A session to discuss the film’s inspirations, the characters’ motivations, and even what it was like working with Sabre, the bull terrier who plays a key role in the story.

Dragonfly tells the story of two women divided by a generation, yet united by loneliness and a longing for connection. Elsie (Brenda Blethyn) is an elderly woman whose body is increasingly failing her – grocery shopping or simple household chores become a battle for survival. Her neighbor Colleen (Andrea Riseborough), a 35-year-old living on benefits, disillusioned with the welfare system and the indifference of those around her, offers to help. She lives with her dog, Sabre – the only being she truly trusts. When Colleen and her four-legged companion enter the older woman’s home, a warning light goes on in the viewer’s mind. It’s difficult to tell whether her intentions are genuinely good – is she driven by selflessness and a need to help, or are there hidden motives at play? This uncertainty keeps the tension mounting, even though very little seems to happen on the surface.

The film opens with a quote from James Thurber: “Time is for dragonflies and angels. The former live too little and the latter live too long.” This sets up time and impermanence as central themes. The symbolism in that line isn’t translated into the script in a heavy-handed way; instead, it seeps through delicately, almost imperceptibly. Williams builds suspense from the smallest details – daily routines, repeated gestures, uneasy glances. At first, one might assume that Colleen symbolizes the angel – after all, she’s young, with many years ahead of her, and helping an elderly woman could be seen as an easy path to Heaven. Yet things aren’t that simple – the dragonfly becomes a metaphor for fragility, and what proves most fleeting are human relationships. Trust, which grows slowly, can vanish in an instant. Calm and safety can just as quickly crumble. One rash act is enough to shatter the fragile bond between people.

It’s impossible to deny the director’s mastery in creating tension, but much of the film’s power also lies in the performances of its outstanding lead actresses: Andrea Riseborough and Brenda Blethyn. Both bring nuanced portrayals – the older woman subtly conveys helplessness and growing frustration at having to rely on others, while the younger radiates mystery and unpredictability. The contrast between them gives the film psychological depth, turning every scene into an emotional battleground that sustains a constant sense of unease and suspense. An unexpected player enters the story in the form of Elsie’s son, John (Jason Watkins), whose arrival shifts the film’s tone, disrupts its fragile balance, and reveals an additional, genre-oriented layer more familiar to Splat!FilmFest audiences.

Paul Andrew Williams’s Dragonfly deserves attention – despite its slow pace, it’s emotionally engaging cinema, exquisitely acted and gripping until the very last minute. The film provokes reflection on the fragility of human relationships, the limits of trust, and how easily our intentions can be misread. It’s not a straightforward horror film but rather a psychological drama with the soul of a thriller, and, despite initial doubts, it serves as a fitting opener for a festival dedicated to uncompromising genre cinema. It shows that even from everyday routine and raw realism, one can slip quickly into the realm of darkness – because true danger often lies hidden in human emotions.