“Damsel” (2024) is a fantasy adventure film directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and starring Millie Bobby Brown as Princess Elodie. The story centers around Elodie, who agrees to marry Prince Henry only to discover that she is to be sacrificed to a dragon to settle an ancient debt. Thrown into the dragon’s lair, Elodie must use her wits and resourcefulness to survive and escape.
After her marriage, Elodie is taken to a mountain where a priestess conducts a ceremony that makes her royal by mixing her blood with Henry’s. Soon after, she is thrown into a chasm to be a sacrifice for a dragon, continuing a royal tradition where brides are offered instead of the king’s daughters. Inside the dragon’s lair, Elodie fights for survival, using glowing insects to heal her injuries and discovering a map left by previous victims.
Elodie’s father, unable to bear the thought of losing his daughter, attempts a rescue but is ultimately killed by the dragon. Elodie manages to escape, but the royal family, led by Queen Isabella, plans to sacrifice Elodie’s sister, Floria, as a substitute. Elodie returns to the lair to save her sister, confronting the dragon and revealing the truth about the royal family’s deception. In a climactic battle, Elodie defeats the dragon using its own fire.
Brown first rose to fame with her starring role as Eleven in the hit Netflix sci-fi series Stranger Things. Since getting her start on Netflix, Brown has reteamed with the streamer for most of her subsequent film roles. She returned to Netflix to play the title character in the Enola Holmes franchise and the lead role of Michelle in the Russo brothers’ upcoming sci-fi adventure, The Electric State. Damsel is continuing Brown’s collaboration with Netflix, and it ties into an ongoing genre trend with Netflix’s original content.