Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Czechoslovakia, 1970)

While most of the films I select for my month’s viewing are unambiguously horror, I do like to throw in a few that are more black comedy, thriller, or artistic weirdness. It can be hard to keep up the momentum to write all these reviews, and variety helps. I’d only heard a few vague things about Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, but it sounded like the kind of 1970s oddity I enjoy, and probably just what I needed to keep things fresh.

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders is available on DVD.

Synopsis

Valerie lives with her grandmother in a large, imposing house. Her mother has apparently taken vows and off to a convent, and her father is absent. As the film begins, Valerie comes to the attention of a dashing young thief, named Eaglet, who may be her love interest, her brother, or maybe both, and that of a shapeshifting vampire who may really be a polecat, the local constable, a bishop, or Valerie’s father. Things become more complicated when the vampire offers to make Valerie’s grandmother young again in exchange for the house, and he starts insinuating himself into their lives. Happily, Valerie has her mother’s magic earrings to protect her from evil influences, such as the magical brothel the vampire seems to be operating in the crypt under her home.

And then things start to get really weird.

General Thoughts

The 1970s were a weird and sometimes uncomfortable time in cinema, with filmmakers using their newfound freedom to explore sex and violence in every way imaginable. While this liberation resulted in some amazing films, it was also informed by attitudes towards matters like adolescent sexuality and consent that are distinctly at odds with modern values.

There is a throwaway line in the film about Valerie being 13. I wasn’t aware until I read the Wikipedia article afterwards that Jaroslava Schallerová, who plays Valerie, was also 13 when the film was shot. This makes the way her character is sexualised really quite uncomfortable. While it’s not graphic, there is a little nudity, and the allusions to incest become all the creepier with this context. This is meant to be a coming-of-age story, but even so… It’s hard not to think of the predatory way Jodie Foster and Brooke Shields were treated around this time.

Speaking of content warnings, there is some real animal death. It’s no Cannibal Holocaust, but it still caught me by surprise.

I can imagine Valerie and Her Week of Wonders making a great double bill with Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain. While the latter is even stranger, they are both beautiful and shocking in similar ways.

Verdict

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders is the kind of dreamy, trippy film that could only have happened in the early seventies. I’d hesitate to call it surreal, but it does at least seem to be informed by surrealism. Every scene has some kind of odd little flourish to keep us off-balance, and watching is more of a visual experience than an intellectual one.

There is a plot, although this is very much not the film’s main concern. Valerie’s story is the kind of gothic fairy tale you might expect from Angela Carter, saturated with sexuality and weird menace, but it’s told in an oblique, disjointed manner that descends into pure spectacle. While I’m sure this may try some viewers’ patience, it is only 77 minutes long.

If you’re in the mood for something very different to break up the month, and you’re not put off by the seventies creepiness, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders is a fascinating little oddity.

The October Horror Movie Challenge

Please do join in and share your own thoughts with us about this or any other films as the month goes on. You can usually find us on BlueSky, Reddit, Discord, or lurking in the dark corners of your home.

If you would like to play along at home, my provisional selections are:

Heretic (USA, 2024)
The Sadness (Taiwan, 2021)
The Uninvited (USA, 1944)
The Lodge (UK/USA, 2019)
WolfCop (Canada, 2014)
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Czechoslovakia, 1970)
The Monkey (USA, 2025)
Sister Midnight (India/UK, 2024)
Roadgames (Australia, 1981)
Nightmare City (Italy, 1985)
Dangerous Animals (Australia, 2025)
Dead Talents Society (Taiwan, 2024)
Winterbeast (USA, 1992)
Byzantium (UK/Ireland, 2013)
The Ugly Stepsister (Norway, 2025)
A Page of Madness (Japan, 1926)
Heart Eyes (USA, 2025)
Grafted (New Zealand, 2024)
Arrebato (Spain, 1979)
Hatching (Finland, 2022)
Abigail (USA, 2024)
Ganja & Hess (USA, 1973)
The Devil’s Bath (Austria, 2025)
Pieces (Spain, 1982)
Infested (France, 2023)
Best Wishes to All (Japan, 2022)
A Cat in the Brain (Italy, 1990)
Enys Men (UK, 2022)
Creature From the Black Lagoon (USA, 1954)
Perewangan (Indonesia, 2024)
Bring Her Back (Australia, 2025)

A Final Note

If you have been enticed here by these posts, please do look around at some of our other film reviews. We also have a podcast, called The Good Friends of Jackson Elias, which occasionally covers horror films. If this appeals, you might want to check out some of the following episodes.