Titane director Julia Ducournau returns with Gen Alpha’s first body horror

It’s unclear whether Alpha (Mélissa Boros), the title character of the new film from Titane and Raw writer-director Julia Ducournau, is named for her generation. For that matter, Alpha has enough speculative ambiguity that it’s unclear when it’s taking place. But assuming it’s supposed to be roughly contemporary, Alpha’s age, 14, places her right at the forefront of Gen Alpha, the generation born starting in 2010, and ending around the time this movie was finished. It’s a significant detail, because while Alpha takes inspiration from a number of periods, it’s the first piece of body horror that truly feels informed by the nascent experiences of this newest complete generation.