“Damsel” wants to be a grim fairy tale, a story about a princess sacrificed to a dragon, and it mostly fails because the fairy tale is not a fairytale. Millie Bobby Brown plays Elodie, a young woman from an unnamed northern land whose marriage to Prince Henry of Aurea turns out to be a trap. The film, directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo from a script by Dan Mazeau, runs 107 minutes and arrived on Netflix on March 8, 2024.
Trailer, via Netflix.
The Setup
Elodie’s father, Lord Bayford, urges her to accept Queen Isabelle’s proposal so her bride price can help their impoverished people. Elodie and Henry bond during their travels, but the film keeps the audience guessing about Isabelle’s true motives until the wedding itself. That night, Isabelle reveals the pact made centuries earlier by the first king of Aurea, who had to sacrifice his three daughters to keep peace with the Dragon. After a ceremony where their palms are cut and held together, Henry throws Elodie down the chasm at Isabelle’s behest.
The Escape
Elodie survives the fall, barefoot and burned. She escapes the Dragon after it burns her leg and finds an illuminated cave filled with glowing silk worms, which she collects as a light source. In a chamber marked “Safe Here She Cannot Reach,” she finds the names of past victims and a map carved into the wall. While she sleeps, the worms heal her leg.
The Map and the Hatchlings
Following the map, Elodie reaches a dead end at a high vertical drop. She discovers the remains of dead dragon hatchlings, which explains why the royal sacrifices were needed. The film sets up a rescue party, but the story ends before it arrives.
The Cast
Millie Bobby Brown carries the film as Elodie, a role that asks her to move from naive bride to desperate survivor. Brooke Carter plays Floria, Elodie’s younger sister. Nick Robinson is Prince Henry, and Robin Wright is Queen Isabelle. Milo Twomey plays King Roderick, and Nicole Joseph appears as Princess Victoria, one of the previous princesses sacrificed to the Dragon. Ray Winstone plays Lord Bayford, and Angela Bassett plays Lady Bayford, Elodie’s stepmother. Shohreh Aghdashloo voices the Dragon.
“This is not a fairytale.”
What Works
The premise is strong. A young woman married off to pay a debt, only to be thrown to a dragon, is a classic setup that could support a sharp, cruel fantasy. The film’s visual design leans heavily into darkness, caves, and glowing worms, and those images stick. Brown’s performance holds the middle stretch of the film together when the plotting stumbles.
What Doesn’t Work
The film is thin. Its runtime is stretched across a handful of scenes, and the middle section drags while Elodie walks through chambers and corridors that feel like padding. The pacing slows whenever the story stops to explain the map or the names of past victims, and the payoff of the hatchling discovery is underdeveloped. The film also leans on exposition to explain the sacrifices, which sometimes feels like it is dressing up simple facts as atmosphere.
The Ending
The film ends abruptly, with the rescue party mentioned but left unfinished. This is a structural problem, not a stylistic one. The audience is told the story of the sacrifices, shown the evidence of them, and then left with the promise of a rescue that never arrives.
The Verdict
“Damsel” is a film with a great idea and a weak execution. It knows how to build dread in a cave but struggles to sustain a narrative across a full runtime. The performances are competent, the world-building is promising, and the ending is a letdown. It is a film that announces its ambitions and then fails to deliver on them.
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