In Gentle Monster, the new drama-thriller from Austrian filmmaker Marie Kreutzer, a quiet family life turns terrifying when love, trust, and everything Lucy thought she knew about her husband begin to fall apart
Starring Léa Seydoux as Lucy, a concert pianist and mother, the film follows a family whose attempt at a fresh start in the countryside is shattered by an early-morning police visit. Laurence Rupp plays Lucy’s husband Philip, while Jella Haase and Catherine Deneuve round out the principal cast as Elsa and Eloise.
Gentle Monster made its world premiere in Competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, where Kreutzer returned to the festival following Corsage. The film subsequently screened at the Telluride Film Festival, where it made its U.S. premiere, and at the Toronto International Film Festival in Special Presentations. It is slated to open in select U.S. theaters on October 30, 2026, before arriving on Netflix in the United States and several other territories on November 18, 2026.
According to the official synopsis from Netflix Tudum, Gentle Monster follows concert pianist Lucy, who has relocated her family to a country house in hopes of helping her husband Philip recover from severe burnout. Before the family can settle into their new home, an early-morning police visit tears their lives apart. Isolated and desperate to protect her young son, Lucy must confront the situation alone, caught between the man she loves and the fear of what he may have done.
“I think most of us have hopefully not gone through what Lucy’s going through in the film,” the director told Netflix Tudum. “But I think what everyone in every audience will have experienced in their lives is being disappointed by someone, being manipulated by someone, or someone not being what we thought they were.”
Watch the official trailer for Gentle Monster above.
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