10/22: The Golem
I've super fallen behind the last few days, but hey, back off me. Here's my movie from like 3 days ago because I'm busy, lazy, or a mixture of both:
10/22: Today's horror film was straight out of Jewish folklore, The Golem. Not that I know much extensively about the subject, but Jewish folklore tells about a Frankenstein's monster-type creature created by magic. Much like the idea of Frankenstein's monster, the golem is usually created with good intentions but when control is lost the golem often wreaks havoc on the exact people it was created to protect. That, in the nutshell, is what The Golem concerns itself with.
Set in 1600s eastern Europe, a small, isolated Jewish village finds itself in crisis when the plague hits a neighboring village. A grief-stricken father, his last remaining daughter dying of plague, storms into the village and demands that the plague village save his daughter. He holds the town hostage, killing indiscriminately. A woman who is already on the outs in the village offers a solution: create a golem. You can pretty much imagine how that goes.
Yeah, basically. But with a little kid golem, which is significantly less terrifying.
The Golem is a pretty mixed bag. I love me a good horror period piece and this movie largely captures the feel of it's time period (maybe not as well as, say, The Witch, but I digress). There's moments of true terror and the idea of the woman replacing her dead son with a golem is poignant, but man... The Golem drags in parts. You know a movie drags when it's only an hour and a half and feels like it's an hour longer. I can't help but feel that the idea of this film, while intriguing, didn't yield to a feature length format; there's plenty of filler that distracts from the very strong sections of the film. Ultimately what we're left with is a movie that would have been a killer short film, it's ideas condensed and strengthened, rather than a paper-thin-in-parts full length film.
There's worst movies to watch, but as it is The Golem is pretty middling.
6/10
10/22: Today's horror film was straight out of Jewish folklore, The Golem. Not that I know much extensively about the subject, but Jewish folklore tells about a Frankenstein's monster-type creature created by magic. Much like the idea of Frankenstein's monster, the golem is usually created with good intentions but when control is lost the golem often wreaks havoc on the exact people it was created to protect. That, in the nutshell, is what The Golem concerns itself with.
Set in 1600s eastern Europe, a small, isolated Jewish village finds itself in crisis when the plague hits a neighboring village. A grief-stricken father, his last remaining daughter dying of plague, storms into the village and demands that the plague village save his daughter. He holds the town hostage, killing indiscriminately. A woman who is already on the outs in the village offers a solution: create a golem. You can pretty much imagine how that goes.
The Golem is a pretty mixed bag. I love me a good horror period piece and this movie largely captures the feel of it's time period (maybe not as well as, say, The Witch, but I digress). There's moments of true terror and the idea of the woman replacing her dead son with a golem is poignant, but man... The Golem drags in parts. You know a movie drags when it's only an hour and a half and feels like it's an hour longer. I can't help but feel that the idea of this film, while intriguing, didn't yield to a feature length format; there's plenty of filler that distracts from the very strong sections of the film. Ultimately what we're left with is a movie that would have been a killer short film, it's ideas condensed and strengthened, rather than a paper-thin-in-parts full length film.
There's worst movies to watch, but as it is The Golem is pretty middling.
6/10
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