“Pretty Lethal”, directed by Vickey Jewson and written by Kate Freund, follows a group of ballerinas as they head to a dance competition in Hungary. When their bus breaks down the girls are forced to stay at a remote inn, and as their night continues, one of their own is killed, making them witnesses that have to be hunted down before they can tell the authorities. Forced to use their training in ballet to fight back and survive, the girls quickly learn how to work together and try to escape with their lives.
The movie features a wide cast of people, including Deaf actress Millicent Simmonds (a Quiet Place trilogy) as Chloe, Maddie Ziegler (Dance Moms) as Bones and Avantika as Grace (Spin, Mean Girls 2024) . Simmonds continues her work to feature Deaf culture in the projects she works on, signing throughout the movie, and having multiple scenes that involve her hearing aid. All of the actresses really work to bring the characters to life, fully capturing the horror of the situation they have been forced into.
Each girl has their own distinct personality, Bones is abrasive and jaded, Zoe is naive, Grace is highly religious, Princess is bratty and spoiled, while Chloe is romantic and grounded. The actresses do a brilliant job of portraying each of them as their own persona and understanding the nuances of these character troupes, while still showing their humanity. All of this means the characters adhere to these personalities and they still feel fully fledged in all their aspects, making the group feel balanced because of it.
The set and color design is also stunning, featuring dark, rich, shades of turquoise and magenta, and the whole film being bathed in shades of green. Everything about the set is made to feel larger than life, but also hints that something about this place isn’t right, with the inn for example has a sweeping grand staircase and fanciful details are everywhere from the intricately carved wall panels to the painted murals on the ceiling, but we see that everything is oddly run down. The shadows that the dark red lights cast make everything feel unnatural, showing the luxury but also the discomfort and unease lingering under the surface.
The movie is set to recognizable classical music pieces, further showing the dichotomy between the delicate, beautiful world of ballet, and the blatant violence that the movie portrays. The songs are soft and dainty, even as the ballerinas fight their way out of the inn, cleverly using soundtrack dissonance and the audience’s preconceptions of ballet against them. Even the movie title, “Pretty Lethal” helps to highlight the physical demand that ballet holds, and the technical skill, dedication, and control that it masks beneath its satiny surface.
The girls are only able to survive due to their training, training that has made their every move precise and structured. We see them do pirouettes and battements (spins and kicks) to incapacitate their attackers and use their pointe shoes and their upkeep tools to injure them. In graphic detail, scissors are used to stab, Exacto blades are used to slice, and point shoes are used to bludgeon, showing the girls’ ingenuity and creativity in gory detail
In the end the movie feels original and fun, letting the girls really get into the spirit of an old school slasher movie in a modern context and feeling like the director and other staff truly enjoyed making this. The actresses each have moments where they shine and the whole movie is creative and a highly entertaining watch.
