Young teen Gwen (superbly played by Eleanor Worthington-Cox) struggles to keep her spirits up while living a bleak and thankless existence on her family farm in 19th century Wales. Things take a turn for the worse after her stern mother Elen (an equally terrific portrayal by Maxine Peake) falls ill and several villagers conspire to take the farm away from them.

Writer/director William McGregor tells the absorbing story at a deliberate pace, expertly crafts a supremely spooky and unsettling atmosphere that's rife with dread and unease, maintains an unsparingly grim tone throughout, and presents a flavorsome evocation of period setting. Moreover, McGregor captures the stark horror of abject poverty with bracing acuity. Washington-Cox's strong acting really holds this movie together. By no means a fun film, but an extremely potent and haunting one.

Industrial revolution in Northern Wales sometime between late 1800s and as early as late 1700s. Ornate iron gate fits those timelines. Dad is off to fight in unknown war going on somewhere, but not clear which war. Mom & two daughters mind the farm & sheep. A slate quarry nearby wants their land. Somebody kills their sheep to drive them off because they won't sell. Story sort of muddles along until the end when it doesn't end well for some maybe for all - can't tell. Lots of holes in the story. Positive: Some might find the rolling grasslands a positive.

Gwen is an elegant, slow-burning psychological thriller that is, in the end, less than the sum of its parts. William McGregor's screenplay withholds a lot of information from the audience, so the film's first hour or so feels a little confusing as supernatural events may or may not happen. Via cinematography, musical score and the scenery alone, McGregor does a great job of creating a foreboding atmosphere, but it culminates in a third act that is very dark but not especially surprising. Too much of the film feels monotonous, and there is not nearly enough comic relief to provide much-needed levity that leads to tedium as well as exhaustion. Every movie needs comic relief, even a war movie. Midsommar offers a lot of that, even if some of it is in the form of bad laughs. Gwen doesn't turn into silliness nor rely on the value of shock as Midsommar does, but beyond his stylish cinematography, he doesn't have much else that is captivating. Style can sometimes be part of the content of a movie, but this is not the case with Gwen. At least the performance is good, so instead of the screenplay, the modicum of poignancy comes from that dimension. Gwen is an overwhelming psychological thriller that never rises above mediocrity at a running time of 98 minutes, which feels more like 2 hours.