Rent The Virgin Spring (1960)

Every parents worst nightmare - The Virgin Spring review by CP Customer

This film is told in a very simple style but does so in a very effective way as it takes you through different aspects of human nature and emotion. Max Von Sydow is excellent as the 'head of house' and serves to increase the tension simply by his massive frame. I was impressed with the way Bergman chose to portray the parents reaction to the news of their daughters loss. It conveys the remarkable way that humans can manage extremely stressful situations with total calm when the need arises.

Atmospheric and Moving - The Virgin Spring review by CD

This is great film that, as with the Seventh Seal, really evokes the 14th century and medieval Sweden. The acting is great and the characters introduced really add to the narrative. Some of the lighting and screenshots, with the black and white format are brilliant, and the story is suitably dramatic and moving. The end is really superb and unexpected.

Bergman’s Brutal Medieval Shock-Trial - The Virgin Spring review by griggs

Some films feel carved out of wood and lit by a cold moon. Here the landscape does half the talking, and the air seems thick with old belief. You can see why The Virgin Spring gets tagged as proto–folk horror: the pagan shadows press right up against the cross.

The story itself is blunt, almost fable-simple, but the film keeps roughening it with doubt. Max von Sydow carries that moral weight without melodrama, and Gunnel Lindblom brings a sour, watchful intelligence that stops the film turning into pure parable.

I ended up torn — admiring the craft and unsettled by how the ordeal is engineered to deliver its reckoning. Whether that discomfort is mine, the film’s, or the whole point, I’m still chewing on it.