Moloch

Moloch

source: Moloch

The Nordic atmosphere and scenery were great, the acting was ok for the most part (though the English spoken scenes were a bit weird, the actors appeared to have been dubbed - not sure why it was necessary). I liked various bits of personal history, scenes of the school and the village - the contrast between the everyday life and the uncanny weird stuff "behind the scenes" always makes for a great film; sadly, I felt there wasn't enough of it here. Instead, there was a very silly CGI that was totally laughable and unnecessary - this and the final scene made something potentially interesting into a total cliché.

This film has it all. A creepy atmosphere during the whole movie, a really good script with a good ending, some jump scares, a nice gore scene, a good scary ghost/monster, and good acting by the main characters. It is partly spoken in dutch, but the main character meets an international survey team close to the farm where she lives so it is also partly spoken in english. I would say this is a folk-horror film, and if i must compare it to some other horrors then Midsommar and Hereditary come to my mind. I really liked those two films and i enjoyed Moloch just as much. Hereditary might be a little bit scarier but Moloch has a better satisfying ending.

Never having heard about this 2022 Dutch horror movie titled "Moloch" before now as I happened to stumble upon it, so I didn't know what I was in for here. However, it being a horror movie that I hadn't already seen was essentially sufficient for me to opt to sit down and watch it. Writers Daan Bakker and Nico van den Brink managed to put together a horror movie that definitely had an interesting atmosphere to it. However, the storyline was just too slow paced for my liking, so I wasn't getting a particular big kick out of watching the movie. I was initially drawn to the movie from its cover/poster, because it definitely had a good atmosphere to it. And yeah, while something like that was in the movie, the storyline was just too slow paced for my preference. Not enough of anything exciting or worthwhile happened throughout the course of the 99 minutes that the movie ran for, and that made for a somewhat prolonged and somewhat boring viewing experience. The acting performances in the movie were okay, but as the narrative also was, then the acting was also sort of sluggish and slow paced. So again, you're not in for something thrilling or over-the-top. "Moloch", from director Nico van den Brink, is worth a single viewing, but that is also just about it. Because there is not enough contents for a second viewing. In fact, the movie just barely scraped by with enough contents for the first viewing. My rating of "Moloch" lands on a generous four out of ten stars.

Be warned much of this movie is NOT in english. Had I known that originally, I probably would have forgone it. I don't know what percentage is in Dutch, but it took quite a while for someone to speak english. I would have given it a higher rating had it not been for such.

As above, one of the best films I've seen in a while, probably more so because it's not bogged down and ruined by wokism, which is refreshing. It's a funny time we live in, where making a movie that's normal is different.. But anyway, I liked the feel and pace of this movie, sure, I can see why it's a little slow for some people's liking, but it uses that time developing a rapport with the characters and made me care for them more than I would normally, especially the main character, which I find is rare in movies lately. Even rarer still is this film managed a few 'twists' that I didn't entirely see coming right up until they happened, like at the end where she saves someone from being attacked and then it clicked, that she was probably going to regret doing that. Normally films today are so shallow that I'm 3 or 4 steps ahead to the point (and to the annoyance of my family) that I can even guess the upcoming dialogue, so bonus points earned there. My only criticisms would be, as mentioned in some of the other reviews, there's a couple of moments with some poor acting (from one old guy in particular), which I feel a more experienced director wouldn't have let creep in, but it's not enough to take away from the film and the leads all put in solid believable performances, especially in the parts that matter. And, without giving too much away I would have also liked to see a more positive, definitive ending to the movie, or should I say a resolution either way, who knows, maybe it was kind of left hanging in the hope of a sequel being greenlighted? To me it just felt a little hurried, like they'd run out of time or budget maybe. I see some criticisms of the half English, half Dutch with subtitles element in other people's reviews, whereas I'd like to have seen it all in English, I feel it doesn't distract too much, if you're sitting paying full attention to the movie it shouldn't matter at all really, I find it a bit annoying because I have limited free time lately so I like to do things like play computer games at the same time, but that's not a criticism that can be aimed at the movie, that's a 'my own' fault. It is a 'foreign' movie made in a non-English speaking country and so I'm just grateful it was at least half English.

Feike from Eden makes a deal with Moloch to live when accused of witchcraft by the wife of the man with whom she's been having an affair. She's poor and, therefore, a cleptomaniac. Anyway, Moloch informs her that to live she must make a sacrifice and that children will be involved. So, she slices her throat in front of the woman to whose body her spirit will transfer. This continues through several centuries. Present day, those who will listen hear whispers in the big to kill Feike before her next corporeal jump. These whispers come from Feike'sprevious victims who are primarily, if not all, the female descendants of the simp wife who accused Feike of witchcraft. Feike avoids execution at the hands of those listening to the whispers. By slicing her throat, Feike jumps into the daughter of the mother whom she currently possesses.

It's nice to see a competent horror movie for a change, nowadays most horror movies seem to rely solely on exposition for dummies and jumpscares, which I hate. This movie doesn't waste it's time on anything useless, it's a well paced movie with a great atmosphere. It takes some time to build up and you won't guess the ending. The ending almost reminds me of a masterpiece called Hereditary by Ari Aster. The acting was flawless and there were some very competent moments of cinematography. I sincerely recommend watching the movie. Forget about the lame blockbuster like the Nun or the Conjuring and choose this instead.

Moloch (2022) is a new release from the Netherlands currently available on Shudder. The storyline follows a group of researchers who uncover a fossilized woman tied to a legend near a bog. Shortly after finding the corpse a house near the bog starts having visitors and portions of the legendary story starts happening all around the family in the house. The legend may play out at the family's home if the scientist and family doesn't work together to stop it. This movie is directed by Nico van den Brink in his directorial debut and stars Sallie Harmsen (Bladerunner 2049), Markoesa Hamer (How to Sell Drugs Online), Edon Rizvanolli (Unwanted), Alexandre Willaume (The Wheel of Time) and Jack Wouterse (Vet Hard). This movie has several original concepts that I really enjoyed. There are crazy intense throat slash scenes in this like you've never seen before. The storyline reminded me of Rare Exports in some ways. The settings are really beautiful and the dialogue is well written and felt realistic. The acting is solid and the horror elements are well done. The ending is absolutely tremendous. My one complaint is there are several scenes with a child in a basement and acts going on above them where if they showed the acts taking place I believe those scenes could have been even better (those scenes in this reminded me of Black Phone in a way). Overall this is a solid addition to the horror genre that's worth a viewing. I would score it a solid 7-7.5/10 and recommend giving it a shot.