This is my first Dutch horror film, I think.
The film packed stylish visuals and an interesting atmosphere overall. The beginning felt simple, but it gave me hope that they knew what they were doing. It felt like someone's vision. Like they knew what story they wanted to tell.
As the film continued, I still enjoyed many details and scenes, slowly unwrapping the mystery, waiting for everything to fall smoothly into place. But this wasn't exactly what happened. The ending was simultaneously too simple and too complicated. I had to re-visit previous scenes in my head to understand what the ending scene meant.
The weakest point was probably the story and how unoriginal it felt. I thought they would do something experimental with this dark fairy tale or urban legend. But the ending just reflected some of the ideas of 'Hereditary', Del Toro's 'Mama', and other known horrors. Also, the film gives lots of details but ultimately forgets the critical relationship for this ending to work - the mother-daughter one. There had to be more scenes of them being a family.
There's nothing wrong with getting inspiration from other films and incorporating ideas into your movie. My point is that they didn't use the premise's potential to the full extent.
I can still recommend this, but the enjoyment levels may vary.
The film packed stylish visuals and an interesting atmosphere overall. The beginning felt simple, but it gave me hope that they knew what they were doing. It felt like someone's vision. Like they knew what story they wanted to tell.
As the film continued, I still enjoyed many details and scenes, slowly unwrapping the mystery, waiting for everything to fall smoothly into place. But this wasn't exactly what happened. The ending was simultaneously too simple and too complicated. I had to re-visit previous scenes in my head to understand what the ending scene meant.
The weakest point was probably the story and how unoriginal it felt. I thought they would do something experimental with this dark fairy tale or urban legend. But the ending just reflected some of the ideas of 'Hereditary', Del Toro's 'Mama', and other known horrors. Also, the film gives lots of details but ultimately forgets the critical relationship for this ending to work - the mother-daughter one. There had to be more scenes of them being a family.
There's nothing wrong with getting inspiration from other films and incorporating ideas into your movie. My point is that they didn't use the premise's potential to the full extent.
I can still recommend this, but the enjoyment levels may vary.