There's a nasty little genre horror nestled inside Iranian director Ali Abbasi's "Shelley," but the film is far more effective for largely being set before those elements come squealing into the world. Containing not one single jump scare, but building a disquieting atmosphere of dread that leads us to make some brilliantly gruesome inferences, it's a classy take on the often trashy pregnancy horror category, with a subtle social critique underlying its neo-gothic texture. Immaculately photographed by cinematographers Nadim Carlson and Sturla Brandth Grøvlen, whose virtuosic work on one-take wonder "Victoria" is about as far removed from the chilly formalism of "Shelley" as is possible, the film is also flattered by its careful sound design, which mixes the ambient noises of water and forest and wind with Martin Dirkov's amniotic score to almost subliminally unsettling effect. Add to all this two perfectly pitched central female performances...
