The Girl with the Needle: A gruesome film that isn't for everyone, but one I dare to call a 'must-watch'

Although it is based on a crime in Denmark that remains in history, it does not focus on the event itself, and the story is largely fictional.
Some have called it horror, but it is not 'horror'.
I think it is a realistic and quite sophisticated 'human drama'.
Officially, it is a 'Gothic mystery'.
(Personally, I wanted to see this film more out of an interest in criminal history than for the genre. I have included information about the model case and similar incidents in the latter half of this article, so please read it if you are interested.)

<The Girl with the Needle (2025)>

Director: Magnus von Horn
Cast: Vic Carmen Sonne, Trine Dyrholm

(Viewing date: 2025/5/17)

It begins with a collage of images featuring expressions that seem to capture only human 'malice'.
I really loved the restrained, beautiful monochrome visuals and the music that fuels the madness, mixing dissonant string instruments with click noises and electronic sounds.

It is a hodgepodge of gruesomeness, filthy depictions, unpleasant people, eroticism, and the grotesque, all set in a dark, gloomy, and madness-filled world. Honestly, it is hard to empathize with the protagonist Karoline's actions and words as she is hit and entangled by it all...
But perhaps that is because of the era, where 'normalcy' was distorted by the abnormality born from 'extreme poverty and the darkness of war'.

Through a certain encounter and various circumstances, she becomes 'pregnant'.
The scene where Karoline, now pregnant, meets her husband—who returned from the war with his face destroyed—at the circus is a highlight of the grotesque.
(It is so gruesome I want to look away, but in a way, it is beautiful...)

Karoline, whom I had to watch with some distance in the first half, begins to show her 'normalcy' and 'conscience' in contrast to the arrival of the completely abnormal Dagmar.
Dagmar approaches her as a kind person at first, but perhaps she had been using the public bath to hunt for prey all along.

"You did the right thing."
These were the words Dagmar always said to the mothers or their acquaintances who came to leave their children with her.
It is like a curse... the fully inflated and distorted mentality is terrifying...
The callousness of describing a baby with a cleft lip as 'unnecessary'.

The reason Dagmar wanted to keep Karoline close is still a bit unclear to me (whether she just wanted help or wanted a comrade...), but Karoline, who found some fulfillment in dealing with the babies for the sake of survival, is served ether (a highly toxic liquid sometimes drunk instead of alcohol at the time) and continues her days of squeezing out breast milk, eventually being led to a point of no return...
Karoline's sad but resolute action when forced to make a decision.

The courtroom scene where Dagmar's crimes are revealed gave me chills.
Not because of Dagmar's sophistry or excuses, but because of the intense tension when Karoline and Dagmar face each other for the first time in a while 😱
Dagmar does not acknowledge or involve Karoline.
But isn't that because she is a psychopath, rather than out of 'affection'?

Some people are taken in by Dagmar's sophistry and write that the acts she committed were a 'necessary evil' or 'unavoidable because of the times'... but I think that is completely wrong.
The victim-blaming mentality where criminals blame the times or their environmentis common.
It is true that there was a social situation that forced people to depend on Dagmar, and although the demonization of Dagmar is relatively subtle in this film, I think 'affirming the crime' is strictly wrong and a leap in a strange direction.

Surprisingly, this film has some salvation and ends with a glimmer of light.
Karoline's final decision and action were likely both self-admonition and atonement, as well as a trigger for a new beginning, and one can see that she has 'awakened'.
Still... who was Irena?
(Dagmar Overbye, the model for the character, also killed her own children.)
Regardless, I personally liked this ending very much and was surprised by the concept.

There are plenty of terrifying, gruesome, and shocking depictions, but it also serves as an opportunity to learn about and think about extreme poverty, the atmosphere of that era, and how women were oppressed and lived at the time, and on top of that,it is highly accomplished and the story is very well-crafted, so I dare to recommend it as a 'must-watch masterpiece'.

StarringVic Carmen Sonne(Victoria Carmen Sonne).
Her performance gave the impression of someone sickly and worn out, but she is a 31-year-old beautiful actress.
It was a powerful performance with great intensity 👏

<Dagmar Overbye and similar cases>

Now, let's touch uponDagmar Overbye(though it is the English reading of 'Dagmar Overbye').

↑ This article mentions that there were people who committed similar crimes before Dagmar, such as Amelia Dyer in the UK and Minnie Dean in New Zealand. (You can follow the links in the article.)

Besides this, if you follow the section called 'Baby Farming' in the link below, you can confirm that there are still many more criminals of the same kind.

Regarding Dagmar, there may have been a business (money-oriented) aspect, but like Amelia Dyer (who was a foster parent herself, not a foster care broker),it is highly likely that she was a 'pleasure killer'.
In the film, it is a bit vague, and there is not that much depiction of her being strongly obsessed with money.

<The Kotobuki Maternity Home incident and other Japanese cases>

There are also cases in Japan where many infants entrusted to care were driven to death.
The 'Kotobuki Maternity Home incident' discovered in 1948.

There are differences in that one was a foster care broker and the other a maternity home, and differences in active killing versus death by neglect, and the periods are different, but Dagmar committed her crimes from the end of World War I to after the war. The Kotobuki Maternity Home incident occurred immediately after World War II.It is common that these incidents occurred when poverty was rampant in society, during the feeling of confinement during the war, or during the aftermath of the war.Later, similar cases were discovered one after another.

After Dagmar's case, systems and laws changed in Denmark, and after the Kotobuki Maternity Clinic incident, they changed in Japan..
In that sense, these two cases were incidents that triggered historical change.
It is said that in Denmark, citizens began to be managed by numbers and required to carry identification, which led to a decrease in disappearances.

The background to the increase in foster children and adopted children has been attributed to the low status of women, a lack of knowledge and morals regarding sex and pregnancy among the impoverished, and the fact that it was an era where abortion was "illegal" and stricter than it is today.

In Japan, beyond the "Kotobuki Maternity Clinic incident," child-killing of foster children has occurred time and again.
See the link below.
"Aichi Foster Child Murder Case"The number of victims in this case is also staggering, and as it states that "children of women who became widows after their husbands were sent to the front and died during the Russo-Japanese War became victims," the details, such as the influence of war and the nature of the era, are quite similar.

<A world view like Sukekiyo or The Elephant Man!?>

I will add as an aside that regarding the character design of Caroline's Peter, I thought,"The terror exuded by Sukekiyo in 'The Inugami Family' is universal."I am ignorant of this, but perhaps there are Western films dealing with post-war returning soldiers that feature this kind of grotesque depiction.
.

While not a war film, in terms of the structure of making the audience brace themselves due to the terrifying appearance and then digging deeper into the character, it might have a taste somewhat similar to David Lynch's "The Elephant Man."
The appearance of a "freak show" is also similar, and the gloomy atmosphere and the temperature of the visuals are close as well.