The Girl With the Needle

Play trailer

1:29

The Girl With the Needle

Released Dec 6, 2024

2h 3m

Drama

Play Trailer

Watchlist

Watchlist

Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

92%

Tomatometer

109 Reviews

85%

Popcornmeter

100+ Ratings

A standout selection from the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE is a dark fairy tale about one woman's search for tenderness and morality in a cruel world. Both eerie and exquisite, writer-director Magnus von Horn's latest film tracks young factory worker Karoline as she struggles to survive in post-WWI Copenhagen. When she ends up unemployed, abandoned and pregnant, the charismatic Dagmar takes her in to help run an underground adoption agency for unwanted children. The two women form an unexpected bond, until a sudden revelation changes everything. Based on a chilling true story, THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE presents a masterful gothic vision with profound contemporary resonance. Denmark's Best International Feature Film entry to the 97th Academy Awards® also features EFA-nominated performances from Vic Carmen Sonne and Trine Dyrholm, gorgeous cinematography by EO's Michał Dymek, and a spellbinding score by Frederikke Hoffmeier (Puce Mary).

Watch on Fandango at Home

Stream Now

Critics Consensus

Threading its grim tale through sumptuous black-and-white photography, The Girl with the Needle is a haunting parable made with superb craft.

Read Critics Reviews

Tara Brady

Irish Times

The ever-reliable Dyrholm is both charismatic and curdling as the grubby matriarch. But most of the film is writ large and affectingly in Sonne’s agonised face.

Rated: 5/5

Feb 28, 2025

Full Review

Michael O'Sullivan

Washington Post

Sonne delivers a twitchy performance, lurching from meek withdrawal to rage.

Rated: 3/4

Feb 3, 2025

Full Review

Richard Whittaker

Austin Chronicle

Its answers are uneasy and disquieting, and the true root of its horror.

Rated: 3.5/5

Jan 31, 2025

Full Review

Yasser Medina

Cinefilia

As a Scandinavian historical drama, it embraces psychological horror with a refined aesthetic, but overall, the narrative stumbles on more than one occasion when synthesizing its text on abortion and the social condition of women. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 6/10

Sep 1, 2025

Full Review

Mauricio Jarufe Caballero

Cinencuentro

Unlike other European art-house films, this is a film with agile editing, tight sequences, a certain paranoid tone reminiscent of German Expressionism, mid-century Gothic, and some echoes of Eastern European cinema of the 1960s...[Full review in Spanish]

May 28, 2025

Full Review

Sebastian Zavala Kahn

Cinencuentro

More terrifying than any commercial horror film, the film develops dread and tension through situations that frequently occurred in Western societies at the beginning of the 20th century and that could still happen today. [Full review in Spanish].

Rated: 4/5

May 23, 2025

Full Review

Read all reviews

Melissa

Absolutely brutal and unsparing look at life in poverty in post-WWI Denmark and how some people will go to any length to survive. Not for the faint of heart.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/08/25

Full Review

Nicolas J

The Girl With the Needle is impeccably shot and disturbingly bold, it overindulges in bleakness, the director despises his main charaters and soon enough we will too. The emotional and narrative restraint feels replaced by a relentless, artful barrage of despair that ceases to feel purposeful and to feel gratuitous. Cruel misery porn if poorly paced is hard to stomach, no matter how gorgeus.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

08/12/25

Full Review

Tom F

A harrowing look at what people do to cope with an impossible situation.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

07/12/25

Full Review

Charlotte H

This film is as immersive as it is disturbing. The use of black and white and experimental imagery, reminiscent of early avant-garde film makers and heavily influenced by Bunuel’s L’age Dor and early Lynch was intoxicating. The subtle, but effective use of forth wall breaking draws you in to this brutal storytelling and the realisation that these events; the disfigurement of soldiers, baby farms and exploitation of the ‘unfortunate’, made me shiver. The makeup effects were clever and extremely well executed and however disturbing, you have to give props to that young actress that has to breast feed at age 7. It was also nice to see newborns playing newborns. Not an obvious 20lb 6month old trying to be passed off as one. This deserves all the recognition that it got.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

06/22/25

Full Review

Fong Kok Hoong F

Hauntingly shot in black and white, this Oscar nominee for Best International Feature is a reimagination of the true story of Danish serial killer Dagmar Overbye in 1920s Copenhagen with an unexpectedly touching narrative of an obtuse young woman beaten by crime horror and harsh realities to come of age to be a surrogate mother of hope and warmness in that bleak period of poverty and moral abandonment.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

06/15/25

Full Review

Carl M

It's brutal but beautiful.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

06/11/25

Full Review

Read all reviews

Read More

Read Less

POST RATING

WRITE A REVIEW

EDIT REVIEW

Magnus von Horn

Director

Vic Carmen Sonne

Karoline

Trine Dyrholm

Dagmar

Besir Zeciri

Peter

Ava Knox Martin

Erena

Joachim Fjelstrup

Jørgen

Little Women

95%

92%

Little Women

Watchlist

TRAILER

for Little Women

The Quiet Girl

97%

93%

The Quiet Girl

Watchlist

TRAILER

for The Quiet Girl

Ordinary Angels

84%

99%

Ordinary Angels

Watchlist

TRAILER

for Ordinary Angels

The Justice of Bunny King

95%

95%

The Justice of Bunny King

Watchlist

TRAILER

for The Justice of Bunny King

Scrap

98%

99%

Scrap

Watchlist

TRAILER

for Scrap

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

The Girl with the Needle: Trailer 1

1:29

View more videos

View more photos

Synopsis

A standout selection from the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE is a dark fairy tale about one woman's search for tenderness and morality in a cruel world. Both eerie and exquisite, writer-director Magnus von Horn's latest film tracks young factory worker Karoline as she struggles to survive in post-WWI Copenhagen. When she ends up unemployed, abandoned and pregnant, the charismatic Dagmar takes her in to help run an underground adoption agency for unwanted children. The two women form an unexpected bond, until a sudden revelation changes everything. Based on a chilling true story, THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE presents a masterful gothic vision with profound contemporary resonance. Denmark's Best International Feature Film entry to the 97th Academy Awards® also features EFA-nominated performances from Vic Carmen Sonne and Trine Dyrholm, gorgeous cinematography by EO's Michał Dymek, and a spellbinding score by Frederikke Hoffmeier (Puce Mary).

Director: Magnus von Horn
Producer: Malene Blenkov, Mariusz Włodarski
Screenwriter: Magnus von Horn, Line Langebek
Distributor: MUBI
Production Co: Nordisk Film
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Danish
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 6, 2024, Limited
Box Office (Gross USA): $112.2K
Runtime: 2h 3m
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital

Most Popular at Home Now