MotelX 2025 Review: ALMA VIVA Is Another Winning Coming-Of-Age-Horror

Young Salomé has a great bond with her grandmother. She helps her grandmother out with seances, as her grandmother blends her Catholic religion with the older, more paganistic roots of the Portuguese countryside, and provides her services as someone who is aligned with the spirits. Salomé seems to have inherited some of the natural foresights of her grandmother, but a lot of the time between the two is also spent bonding on cooking, dancing along with hip-hop on the television, and other shared interests. Then, her grandmother dies under mysterious circumstances. Salomé can't shake the feeling her presence is haunting her, but the question is: are the dark happenings that are occurring supernatural in spirit, or is this a psychological acting out by Salomé due to the impossibilities of dealing with grief while her family all but ignores her?

Alma Viva walks a thin line between dark psychology and the possibly supernatural for its entire runtime. The question of which is which, and if Grandmother was really a witch, is either/or. Never does first-time director Cristèle Alves Meira truly reveal what is happening, leaving it for the audience to interpret the clues, and let the chips fall where they may. It shows remarkable restraint on her part, because it is what makes Alma Viva special: those inclined to believe in spirits might read the film one way, while others might see a coming-of-age film about a disturbed kid, in the heritage of films like Paperhouse and Celia. Alma Viva is that rare thing, a film about superstitions and the supernatural that is also supremely naturalistic and realistic, weaving a grand tapestry of countryside fears, interfamiliar strife and outside pressure, and how they all put young Salomé through the wringer.

All could have been for nought if the casting went wayside, cause it is a lot to ask of a pre-teen actress to display both childhood innocence and more adult fears and grief. The daughter of the director, Lua Michel, is more than up for the task. She might turn in one of the all time great child performances, stunning the audience with a very naturalistic portrayal of a young kid, while also nailing the darker, more introspective parts.

Sealing the deal - making this one of the best films out this year - is the camerawork, which impresses with its almost fly on the wall-approach, while also leaving room for magical-realist flights of fancy. Like the subject and its lead character, the camera straddles a fine line between being in the present, and delving into a more heightened state. Alma Viva ties the personal view of a child to a grander exploration of the nature of Portuguese superstitions, and thus tells a story that is hauntingly specific, yet also feels universal. Alma Viva joins the pantheon of other truly great coming-of-age-horrors before it, think Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Pan's Labyrinth, and the aforementioned titles. It deserves to be much wider seen.