Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes

The Girl With the Needle

Play trailer 1:29 Poster for The Girl With the Needle 2024 2h 3m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
92% Tomatometer 110 Reviews 86% 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

Where to Watch

The Girl With the Needle

The Girl With the Needle

What to Know

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

Critics Reviews

View More (110)
Catherine Wheatley Sight & Sound Von Horn isn’t making a social treatise but an adult fairytale. Nov 11, 2025 Full Review 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 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

Audience Reviews

View More (39)
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 Claudio C Pigen med nålen / The Girl with the Needle (2024) Too Heavy and Depressing Drama (12,067 – 16 Nov 2025 – by Claudio Carvalho) If you like to read my reviews, see my Blog. Unfortunately RT does not like reviews of serious themes and does not publish them. They just want small sentences, but not a review. My vote is seven. Title (Brazil): "A Garota da Agulha" ("The Girl with the Needle") My Blog: https://maniacosporfilme.wordpress.com/ Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 11/17/25 Full Review Vince Q. Danish entry for Best Foreign Language Film Period atmospheric about the aftermath of World War I in Denmark and the fallout posed by the combination of post-war world econonomic depression and injured soldiers (mentally and emotionally) returning home to the women who remained. Starring Victoria Carmen Sonne in a taut and memorable story-driven performances around the exigency of poverty and the desperation it entails, especially in young women who become pregnant with unwanted children. In this film, we experienced a range of detailed characters in a historic setting pitted against insurmountable obstacles. Absolutely peak filmmaking. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 11/01/25 Full Review Jon T This is hard to rate as while it’s very good, it’s also a tough watch. In all my years of movie going l cannot think of anything as unremittingly bleak. I have never seen a better recreation of the harshness of daily life and suffocating social attitudes in nineteenth century Europe. The film vividly explores how people are forced to navigate a world with few comforts for the majority. There is escape and redemption but if feels like a sop to spare the viewer further punishment. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 10/31/25 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 Read all reviews
The Girl With the Needle

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW
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

Movie Info

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