‘Ferine’ review: Arresting Italian genre debut is lush modern giallo with feline themes

Dir: Andrea Corsini. Italy. 2026. 106mins

Ferine is the perfect title for Italian filmmaker Andrea Corsini’s atmospheric debut, which premieres in Fantasia’s Cheval Noir competition: the word means feral, but is also only one letter shy of feline, conjuring an impression of ferociousness blended with a strange gracefulness. Within the first 15 minutes, a peculiar series of events – involving illegal surrogacy, an escaped panther and a traffic accident – see a newborn baby become a bite-sized snack for a big cat. All to the accompaniment of a score by Pino Donaggio. Yes, this is very much a giallo film

 Plenty of macabre yet beautiful imagery 

Corsini debuted his short film of the same name at Venice Critics’ Week in 2020, and has since developed the concept into a feature with the assistance of Fantasia festival’s development pipeline (the festival also hosted the short’s Canadian premiere). Its main characters are a mix of nationalities who communicate mainly in English (with occassional stretches in Italian), which should help it travel internationally. It is, of course, not for everyone but, while the premise may prove challenging for some, the film slots neatly into the arthouse horror scene which has given us the likes of Julia Ducournau’s first two features (Raw and Titane), Claire Denis’ Trouble Every Day and other monstrous feminine classics.

As wealthy art collector and would-be mother Irene, Irish actor Carolyn Bracken is the film’s heart and soul – a broken heart and damned soul. The lone witness to the strange and violent death of the infant for whom she had longed, Irene quickly spirals into madness. Bracken, who broke out with Damian McCarthy’s Oddity in 2024, has plenty to get her teeth into here – quite literally, as the character develops a taste for human flesh, becoming the dark double of the creature who ate her adopted daughter.

The grim incident which sees Irene descend into madness takes place early on in the runtime, so there is a certain limit imposed on Bracken’s emotional range – you never really get to know what Irene might have been like at a happier time in her life. Though it is hinted that, prior to considering surrogacy, she has been through the wringer with a number of unsuccessful pregnancies – so perhaps the story would have had to go back too far to glimpse a truly carefree Irene. The part is nevertheless a treat for an actor: how many roles are there where you get to sink your teeth into a raw, skinned rabbit?

The film is also a huge opportunity for production designer Carlotta Desmann, a challenge to which she rises with aplomb. As befits a giallo-influenced picture, there is a slightly unreal quality to the world of the film, with plenty of macabre yet beautiful imagery – including a performance art set piece which is both ludicrous and wonderful. Irene’s incredible living space is a monumental piece of Italian Futurism, a home which feels both glossy and strangely neglected.

Elsewhere, Caroline Goodall’s Dama - a neo-colonialist-coded keeper of big cats – lives in a compound that is part archaic zoo, part neo-colonialist mansion, immaculately styled to evoke safaris and cruelty. Goodall herself is fantastic in spiky colonial mode: she makes her character’s blasé, matter-of-fact coldness feel absolutely plausible. Rounding out the main trio is Paola Lavini as Rosa, a social worker and maternity specialist.

As with many films in the giallo tradition, Ferine perhaps promises slightly more than it can, in the final analysis, deliver – certainly in terms of payoff for the characters’ emotional journeys. But in terms of arresting imagery, mood and vibe, it represents an extended trip into visually lush and viscerally juicy territory.