THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!
I’m gonna have to use spoilers in this review because otherwise you won’t have any idea what I’m going on about.
Stone Turtle is a rape-revenge horror with a time-loop structure. Be aware this film opens with an honour killing in its first scene, and gender-based violence is a theme throughout. Know that going in.
A woman and girl live on an island inhabited only by women, and perhaps ghosts. A man appears unexpectedly, says he’s interested in the island’s turtles, and asks the woman to help him in his research. He seems very congenial until they are drawn into a confrontation, whereupon both show a ruthless brutality.
The film has a lot of commendable elements, but for me it is too slow. A time-loop structure works on repetition, giving the audience shorthand for repeated events, so that deviations in pattern can be explored. So much time is spent on the first run-through of the day, it’s done at a soporific pace, when you need the first time to establish the main beats. It’s just baggy and full of dead air.
My other big criticism is that I have no idea what it’s saying or am even sure it knows what it’s saying. Most rape-revenge stories are spartanly straight-forward, they do exactly what it says on the tin. If by being slower and more beautiful, Stone Turtle is meant to be more ponderous, I have no idea what it’s pondering. I’m not sure if the time-loop is meant to represent the futility of revenge, but since it’s based on this island of women’s pain and injustice, that would be a really bleak message about striving to redress those wrongs. It’s about gendered violence, but I wouldn’t call it a feminist film.