Directed by Jessica Hausner | 77 mins | 2004
Jessica Hausner’s eerily enigmatic second feature is suffused with the crystalline chill of its remote alpine setting. It follows Irene, newly employed as a receptionist at Waldhaus, a stately hotel in the woods: The young woman is unsettled to learn that her predecessor did not quit so much as simply disappear. Evoking the spirits of Michael Haneke and David Lynch as much as Stanley Kubrick, the Austrian writer-director here crafts a fleet but redolent haunted hotel tale.