Moloch (2022)

Directed by: Nico van den Brink | 99 minutes | horror | Actors: Sallie Harmsen, Anneke Blok, Jack Wouterse, Alexandre Willaume, Fred Goessens, Markoesa Hamer, Johan Fretz, Willemijn Kressenhof, Phi Nguyen, Edon Rizvanolli, Albert Secuur, Brent van Baardwijk, Noor van der Velden, Ad van Kempen

In ‘Moloch’ the main role is played by the musician and single mother Betriek (Sallie Harmsen). Somewhere secluded on ever-foggy peatlands, Betriek and daughter temporarily move in with her parents. Supposedly to seek peace, so that she can work on new music. But Betriek’s peace is soon shattered by an extremely violent trespass linked to an age-old family curse.

What if for the Dutch film audience the horror monsters don’t come from Hollywood, transferred from Transylvania or a dusty serial killer archive of the FBI, but from much closer? Cult greatness Dick Maas already made frantic efforts: a possessed elevator, a zombie Sinterklaas, a bloodthirsty lion from Artis. And always with the coolest wink, resulting in unpretentious fun or bloodless pulp. Up-and-coming directorial talent Nico van den Brink, on the other hand, has very little interest in the renowned straightforward approach. Uninhibited, Van den Brink is completely absorbed in the dark side of horror on Dutch soil. He does not have a crazy relativization of the psychological frayed edges of the horror genre. The starting point is drama, not farce. Nota bene, Van den Brink makes his debut with ‘Moloch’ and has mainly short films to his name. Under the wing of none other than Sam Raimi (“The Evil Dead,” 1981, and “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” 2022) and James Wan (“The Conjuring,” 2010, and “Aquaman,” 2018) of these also a few others in development into full-fledged productions.

Although the crew’s experience comes mainly from outside the horror genre, such as for editor Xander Nijsten (‘TreurTevee’, 2014-19, and ‘The Last Ones’, 2022) and cinematographer Enno Weemhoff (‘With knife’, 2022 and ‘Quicksand ‘, 2021), everything is more than solid in this scary debut. You understand Raimi and Wan’s personal investment. Moreover, lead actress Harmsen knows how to carry the story with ease and the rest of the, partly international, cast complement her neatly. Alexandre Willaume, a kind of clone of football coach Jürgen Klopp, offers Harmsen as the charming Danish researcher skilful counterplay. And old hands Fred Goessens, as Betriek’s father, and Ad van Kempen, as the local outcast Ton (a dramatic version of a Jiskefet character), also do an excellent job. Nevertheless, other supporting roles are very monotonous and the actors get little to do, as witnessed by the know-it-all Sonja (Markoesa Hamer) and the occasionally toddling policeman Hans (Jack Wouterse).

The set-up of film is quite a mess and too slavish to the work of a new generation of United States horror authors, including Ari Aster (‘Hereditary’, 2018, ‘Midsommar’, 2019). Besides the obvious presence of physical horror in ‘Moloch’, Van den Brink, like Aster, is strongly mesmerized by pagan rituals within a community, such as in the British ‘The Wicker Man’ (Robin Hardy, 1973), and family trauma. The more Van den Brink focuses on this data, the better it gets. That is why ‘Moloch’ has been a sincere attempt at tragedy in Nederhorror for ages.