Julia Ducournau’s Alpha is a coming-of-age body horror centered around a deadly epidemic. Contracting the disease meant turning into a marble sculpture and eventually dying. The patients almost transformed into breathing tombstones helplessly waiting for their time to turn into dust. The sick were ostracized and given dirty looks if they stepped out in public, and perhaps there were only a few like 13-year-old Alpha, who was fascinated by the living sculptures. As a child, Alpha didn’t freak out seeing the needle scars on her uncle’s body; instead, she used them to create a pattern. Alpha was someone who found beauty in the unexpected. What started out as a teenager trying to navigate the prejudice against the sick soon takes a ‘dream within a dream’ turn.
Spoiler Alert
Why was Alpha humiliated in school?
At a house party, Alpha was tattooed by a random stranger. She barely had any recollection of the event, and she didn’t even know if the needle used on her was fresh or used. While the film doesn’t specify the finer details about the disease, it is established from the very beginning that the disease is mostly spread through bodily fluids when they enter through unprotected sexual intercourse, sharing needles, etc. Alpha’s mother, a doctor who specialized in this unknown disease, naturally freaked out when she saw the tattoo on Alpha’s arm. She was hellbent on getting her tested immediately, and for the time being, Alpha was given a tetanus shot. At school, when Alpha started to bleed from her arm, her classmates reacted aggressively. They immediately isolated her and refused to share the same space with her. She was asked to step back during sports class after she started bleeding again, and later her classmates threatened her to not enter the pool with them.
Alpha was frustrated. She refused to stay locked up in her tiny room, but living outside had also become a challenge. She tried to remain calm at first, but as time passed, and the aggression towards her only got worse, she too started to lash out. She realized that people around her had started to fear her, so she decided to spit on them if they ever dared to cross paths with her. After she got into the pool, she was chased by her classmates. She was afraid that she would be drowned, so she constantly kept looking behind her, and in the process, she ended up injuring her head and bleeding again. The school authorities didn’t think it was safe for Alpha to stay around her classmates anymore. They insinuated that she had been spreading panic in school. Although Alpha was tested and the result came back negative, the fear was so deeply ingrained that no proof was ever enough. The panic over the disease and the overall ostracization of the sick hint at the HIV/AIDS epidemic—emphasising the wide-spread homophobia and the isolation of addicts. Julia Ducournau reimagines how the disease sucked the life out of its victims, turning them into pale, brittle sculptures.
Was Alpha’s uncle dead?
One day, when Alpha returned home, she found a man in her apartment. She was terrified and got her hands on a knife. The man claimed to be her uncle, whom she’d apparently met when she was young. Alpha doubted his claim, and waited for her mother to arrive. Alpha’s mother was surprised that she didn’t remember her uncle, and she soon established that Amin would be staying in Alpha’s room. Amin was an addict who had contracted the disease, and Alpha’s mother had made up her mind to look after him. Alpha initially wasn’t keen on striking up a friendship with Amin, but as time passed, she started to sympathize with him. Alpha’s mother refused to let her daughter leave her room unless she was completely sure that she hadn’t contracted the disease. Even though the test result as well as Alpha’s physical condition suggested that she was safe, her mother wasn’t quite sure. Since there wasn’t any cure, she chose to smudge some of Alpha’s blood over a cut on her finger. She wanted to make sure that if something happened to her daughter, she too would meet the same fate.
Now, Alpha moves to and fro between the present timeline and the past. It gradually becomes evident that the present time was centered around Alpha and the past around Amin. In both timelines, the mother plays an integral role as the caregiver. Towards the end of the film, one would be inclined to assume that Amin wasn’t physically present in the present timeline. His presence is in the form of a memory, and Alpha tries to make sense of it. Amin showed up at their apartment soon after the panic regarding Alpha’s health started to set in. Therefore, his presence hinted at the fear that her mother was carrying with her. She’d lost Amin years ago, and when she discovered that Alpha too might have contracted the disease, her fear resurfaced. Alpha was a little girl when Amin stayed with them, and it was only after she started going through the experience of what it meant to be sick in the world they lived in that she started to make sense of all that she’d witnessed when her uncle was around. The agony of watching her brother suffer and perish wasn’t something her mother was ready to experience all over again, and that was the sole reason why she chose to smear her injury with Alpha’s blood. We gradually discover that Alpha had witnessed Amin’s suicide attempt, and the shared trauma between Alpha and her mother becomes integral to the story.
What does the time merge suggest?
Alpha was too young when her uncle stayed with her. She couldn’t grasp what he’d been going through, and by merging the two timelines, it is almost as if Alpha (13 years old) was co-existing with her uncle. The fact that Amin didn’t age a day from the past timeline suggests that it was his memory that was introduced in the present timeline, and not his actual physical self. The warm-toned scenes are indicative of the past (Amin was alive during the time, therefore visually the past was more colorful and hopeful whereas the present timeline, that is, post the traumatic incident the color palette is cool-toned), and towards the end, it is suggested that Amin was admitted to the hospital where Alpha’s mother used to work. He too had turned into marble, and his final days were spent in extreme agony. Amin had wanted to OD and die before things got any worse, but Alpha’s mother refused to silently watch her brother pass away.
Alpha was a little girl when Amin had attempted to escape. Alpha had accompanied Amin and had watched him go to underground clubs where the sick weren’t ostracized and they could live a little before they turned to dust. Amin found it impossible to live with the constant pain and fear, and he planned on getting high and living his life to the fullest before killing himself. The first scene where Alpha was seen drawing a pattern on Amin’s arm was from the day he’d escaped. He had checked into a hotel and was almost about to execute his plan when Alpha’s mother stormed into the room. She was furious when she discovered that Amin had decided to kill himself while Alpha was in the room with him. She couldn’t imagine how traumatic the situation could’ve been for Alpha. Amin explained that the pain had become unbearable, and he no longer wanted to continue living. He refused to listen to his sister anymore, and was ready to inject drugs into his body. But the constant shivers made it impossible for him to do it so Seeing Amin struggle, she offered to help him. Although it was devastating for her, she decided to push the liquid into his body, because for a second all she wished for was seeing him in peace.
In Alpha’s ending, Amin finally rested in peace, and his sister embraced him. But as soon as the realization hit her that she would forever lose her brother, she performed CPR and injected him with a medication that brought him back from his sleep. Alpha remembered that Amin had begged her not to wake him up if he ever fell asleep, so when she saw her mother forcefully trying to revive Amin, she attempted to stop her. But her mother refused to listen, and she brought Amin back to life against his wishes.
What does the final scene hint at?
Alpha emphasizes the attachment of the caregiver; although they are aware of the impossible pain that the patient lives through, sometimes they fail to be completely selfless. Alpha’s mother cared deeply about Amin, to the point that her life had become an extension of his. She couldn’t imagine parting ways with him, even though she knew it only meant more pain and suffering for him. She refused to give up; perhaps she’d hoped a remedy would soon be found and she wouldn’t have to live with this incredible pain of losing her beloved brother. But unfortunately, that didn’t happen, and Amin’s life only got worse with time. He ended up confined to a bed, rotting away, and waiting for his life to finally come to an end. Amin knew that his sister loved him deeply, but he couldn’t carry on anymore for her sake. He begged her not to wake him up again. When his heart stopped beating, Alpha’s mother’s instinct was to perform CPR, but she ultimately chose to refrain and accept the passing of her brother. Alpha was just a child when she witnessed the suffering of her uncle and the impact that his presence had on her mother. When she suspected that Alpha too might have contracted the disease, her mother’s anxiety and trauma resurfaced.
It was almost as if they were living with Amin again, making it impossible for them to navigate their lives on their own. She knew that Alpha wasn’t sick, yet fear got the best of her. Alpha stated that ‘he can’t stay with us anymore,’ emphasizing that it was time for them, especially her mother, to take a step towards healing from the loss instead of spiraling into melancholia. Perhaps Alpha wished she could’ve told the same to her mother when she chose to revive Amin against his wish. She wished she could’ve held her close and comforted her since her mother didn’t really have a shoulder to cry on. But perhaps her mother would’ve made the same choices regardless. She too was young at the time, and she didn’t know any better. As the time and space merged, a storm brewed. Alpha watched her mother’s present version hold her brother’s hand as they walked into the storm, possibly suggesting that even if she knew what the future had in store for her and her brother, she would still make the same choices. She would go through the pain of losing him all over again just to be with him for a little while. The earth had turned into a graveyard; the marble-sculptured human beings had turned into dust that echoed their silent suffering and agony.
