The Blazing World

The Blazing World is a 2021 American fantasy horror-thriller film written and directed by Carlson Young (in her feature film directorial debut) and co-written by Pierce Brown. The film stars Udo Kier, Dermot Mulroney, Vinessa Shaw, Soko, John Karna, Young and Edith González in her final film role before her death in 2019. The film is loosely inspired by Margaret Cavendish's 1666 work of the same name. In 2018, Young wrote, directed and starred in the short film of the same name, prior to expanding the basis and ideas for the full-length film. It is the first in a planned trilogy of films entitled Saturn Returns. Cast Udo Kier as Lained Dermot Mulroney as Tom Winter Vinessa Shaw as Alice Winter Soko as Margot John Karna as Blake Carlson Young as Margaret Winter Liz Mikel as Dr. Cruz Release The film had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival on January 31, 2021 in the Next section. Reception The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes had it with a 59% rating based on reviews from 49 critics. The site's consensus reads, "The Blazing World's scattershot script isn't always able to support writer-director-star Carlson Young's ambitions, but its arresting visuals hold the attention". On Metacritic it has a score of 33% based on reviews from 9 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".