Andrea Corsini’s debut feature “Ferine” is an English-language horror film about Irina, a wealthy woman in Italy whose repeated miscarriages and desperate pursuit of motherhood lead to increasingly disturbing behaviour. The review finds it initially more invested in lofty style and artistic pretension than narrative clarity, but says it ultimately develops enough strange, violent energy to appeal to viewers seeking a more refined form of genre cinema.

After a surrogate mother refuses to surrender her newborn, Irina takes the baby from a private hospital, only for a crash involving an escaped wild animal to leave the child dead and Irina traumatised. She then begins exhibiting a predatory, carnivorous streak, seemingly linked to the animal, while attempts to replace the lost child create further complications. Carolyn Bracken leads the cast, and the film expands Corsini’s 2019 short of the same name after premiering internationally at Fantasia.