Release date - November 14

Cert - 15

Run-time - 2 hours 8 minutes

Director - Julia Ducournau

After a dodgy tattoo, teenager Alpha (Mélissa Boros) is pushed away at school, and isolated by her mother (Golshifteh Farahani) when she may have a spreading virus that could turn her into marble

The body horror in Julia Ducournau's follow-up to Titane is much more gradual and less interested in shock than her previous feature, or debut Raw. It shows that the writer-director is much more focused on working the horror into the themes and emotions at play, to which Ducournau and her film as a whole are completely in-tune with.

After being given a dodgy - both in look and process, seemingly from an unclean, pre-used needle whilst almost passed out at a party - 13-year-old Alpha (Mélissa Boros) starts to display symptoms of a spreading virus that turns those with it into marble statues.

She's quickly pushed away by everyone at school, a shot of students fleeing after an incident leads to a blood spill in a swimming pool is particularly effective in displaying both sides of fear - what if she's got it, or what if she hasn't but everyone continues to think she has? All this on top of usual school-based worries.

The fear in Alpha comes from worry, a growing panic especially as we see the teenager's drug-addicted uncle Amin (Tahar Rahim) confirmed to be turning into marble; coughing dust alongside having an increasingly jagged back.

Ducournau forms a generational story with an emotionally stirring effect, witnessing both shared and individual panic as things appear to worsen for everyone. Raising the tension and anxiety that, alongside the strong visual aspects, are core to the horror.

While the film comfortably falls into the horror genre it doesn't appear to be the defining focus. As mentioned, it's more restrained - although can still induce a gasp; particularly an initially quiet moment involving Amin's back - holding a 15-rating compared to Titane and Raw's 18 certificates, and the film as a whole has a slower overall pace.

One that gives time to be utterly immersed in the emotional aspects of the fear at hand. Even in the final stages where things started to feel slightly tangled I was still engaged by an emotional understanding, proving Alpha primarily as a film about how it made me feel, although boosted by its technical aspects.

Ducournau continues to prove herself as a masterful, visionary writer-director. Getting into the emotions of her increasingly scared young protagonist, with a strong performance from Boros, and those around her.

The same goes for more fantastical moments when doctors, including Farahani, walk the wards washing patients at different stages of turning into statues knowing there isn't a cure, and seeing some pass away.

Deeply rooted in its emotional basis, Alpha is a propulsive horror where the fear and worry are consistently about the conflict of personal and uncertain matters. It's excellent, stirring stuff. I'll be first in line for whatever vision Ducournau conjures up next.

Five stars