The Revelation (2022)

Directed by: Chris W. Mitchell | 92 minutes | thriller | Actors: Victor Löw, Leny Breederveld, Monic Hendrickx, William Sutton, Peter Bolhuis, Eline Havenaar

Jacob’s elderly single mother is rightly concerned. “You’re not going to act like you were in 2000 when those computers went nuts, are you?” It is now twenty years later and the first reports about the corona virus appear in the media. Her son is known as unstable, because with Y2K Jacob (Victor Löw) was in all states. Add to that the recent death of his father and a ‘wappie’ in the making bubbles on the surface. The first lockdown is a fact and Jacob emerges in ‘The Revelation’ into a fighter for ‘Bio-security’, because his view is that we are held captive by the government and he must protect his vulnerable older mother. In her own home, Jacob forces her to quarantine at all costs.

Complete with a mouth mask and in white disposable overalls, he risks a visit to the supermarket, because ‘apple pie does have whipped cream’ and the delivery service had forgotten it. People in the neighborhood supermarket react to the spectacle with a laugh. There is little talk of keeping your distance then. Upon returning home, all groceries are cleaned by hand in soapy water and Jacob scrubs himself in the shower. Opening a window to breathe in the fresh spring air is strictly prohibited.

Every day he retreats upstairs to his old boys’ bedroom for longer and sinks further and further into the wrong side of the internet. Sister Magda (Monic Hendrickx), who works in the hospital – and has recovered from the first Delta variant – watches her brother with suspicion, because Jacob is drawn into texts from the Bible and hallucinatory images of an online conspiracy theorist. He completely loses sight of reality. That obsession soon turns out to be a greater danger to his mother (Leny Breederveld) than the pandemic.

What gives ‘The Revelation’ an extra filmic touch is Joris Bulstra’s camera work. As a result, the outdated, gloomy single-family home becomes a dismal, oppressive fortress that for Jacob is a perfect breeding ground for madness and absurd restrictions. It is a successful enlargement of the oppressive feeling we all experienced during the first lockdown and the long string of measures that followed.

Actor Victor Löw decided to pitch his synopsis to filmmaker and festival organizer Jan Doense during a walk in the winter of 2021. He was immediately captivated and the same day switched with Chris W. Michell, who is responsible for the Dutch horror film ‘De Poel’ from 2014. ‘De Revelation’ has a satirical start that turns into a thriller of proportion in which the character of Löw plays an entertaining role. manner continues.