Revenge movies and TV shows are something Hollywood has in abundance. Comics fans can look towards characters like Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle, while mainstream audiences have Keanu Reeves' John Wick. In the Eastern hemisphere, there are movies like The Shadow Strays as well.

Revenge stories can also have more cerebral with deeper cuts, as seen with movies like A Simple Favor, Lucky Number Slevin and The Gift, among the many. Such dramas evoke a different kind of emotion. In 2025, the Sundance Film Festival unveiled a story of slow-burning vengeance in The Virgin of the Quarry Lake. It has a surprising supernatural twist occurring in the finale that subverts the genre and really gives the film an unpredictable aura.

This 2025 Sundance Film Festival film feels like a typical coming-of-age story about maturity and sexuality. Set against the backdrop of Argentina in the 2000s, the sweltering heat stings a country racked with economic woes. Sports, music, and culture, in general, are distractions. .

. The latter keeps regaling them about her experiences in Europe, which Natalia hates, as her mother left her and ran off there. Rita (her grandmother) has been caring for her, but Natalia is superficial and gets jealous easily. Rita entertains her whims, going as far as to do a ritual to get Diego to like the girl.

The ritual doesn't work, suggesting the woman was just trying to placate her petulant grandchild. Natalia begins losing herself to the rage as time passes. . It builds to an ugly finale at a quarry where Silvia keeps taking them to sunbathe. It's also a place Silvia said people died after they trespassed, and the owner's vicious dogs ate them.

. The movie essentially tries to make her a witch, akin to what has been seen in shows like Agatha All Along. She causes electrical blackouts and even uses her mental powers to cause Rita's toxic boyfriend to bleed to death. At this point, the movie does feel vague, leaving these scenes open to interpretation. Natalia's region is prone to electricity blackouts, while Rita's beau is an old man who may be sick. All the mystical incidents could be debunked by science and logic.

There is something telling in how angry people are around Natalia, which is best exemplified in a riot at an internet café, where she often chats online with Diego. . However, it's still obscure if she really has supernatural energy within her. It comes to a head once Silvia phones her to let her know she and Diego are dating one night.

When they all visit the lake days later, Natalia launches a scathing attack and points out how some of Silvia's stories are lies. Apparently, Silvia did fake some, to lure Diego in with her worldly tales of travel, but Diego doesn't care. . It's never revealed if Silvia's tale about the dogs was a myth, or if Natalia really manifests this. But she does have energy similar to the Scarlet Witch from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Ultimately, Natalia leaves on a bus, having transformed from a woman scorned to a terrifying villain. Her friends are intimidated by her, while the audience is left wondering if her imagination made Silvia (who's usually kind) spew words that were uncharacteristically bitter on the phone. . It eventually led to dark, harrowing consequences, with Natalia becoming this unforgiving, selfish monster who has no problem going extremes to get what she wants.

The Virgin of the Quarry Lake was screened at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival as part of the World Cinema Dramatic Competition.