A deeply disturbing psychological horror turns stomachs on streaming by keeping it in the family

Mononymed filmmaker Elias had already cultivated a reputation for pushing the boundaries of horror into extreme territory with his feature-length directorial debut Gut, so everyone was expecting his follow-up effort Ayla to be much of the same.

While it definitely shares more than a few similarities in terms of thick atmosphere, unnerving dread, and bursts of grisly terror, it’s an altogether different kind of movie, but still one capable of turning stomachs given the queasy psychosexual and incestuous undertones that create a permanent feeling of unease that only grows more perilous as the narrative progresses.

Having spent his entire life grieving over the death of his sister at only four years of age, Nicholas Wilder’s Elton remains completely and utterly obsessed with his sibling a full 30 years later, to the extent that he even imagines her presence watching him while he’s making love to his current girlfriend Alex, which is only the tip of the weird iceberg.

Upon discovering a mysterious pod in the woods, a fully-grown adult version of Aya emerges; although she still has the mind of a child and needs to be taught the way of the world. Sure enough, that does nothing but encourage Elton’s obsessive nature, never mind how their mother reacts to the revelation.

Going into specifics would ruin certain aspects of Aya we’d rather not get into, but seeing as FlixPatrol has named it as one of the most-watched films on the iTunes worldwide watch-list this week, we can infer that subscribers to the service are made of exceedingly stern stuff.