Moloch: Review

26th July 2022

Betriek (Sallie Harmsen) is a single mother who lives with her daughter and her parents. They live on the edge of a peat bog in the northern part of The Netherlands and are quite happy in their quiet lives.

However, one night a man breaks into the house and attacks her mother, leaving all the family shocked, especially after Betriek’s father is able to kill the intruder. An investigation is opened and soon Betriek meets Jonas (Alexandre Willaume) who knew the violent assailant and doesn’t understand why he would act this way.

Soon Betriek and Jonas get to know each other better and a romance starts to blossom, but the more Betriek thinks about the intruder and how something like that could have happened, the more she starts to think that the intruder may have been taken over by a spirit.

Moloch is a Dutch supernatural horror directed by Nico van der Brink and co-written by Daan Bakker that’s exclusive to Shudder. Starting out as an ordinary European drama, the audience may be lulled into a false sense of confidence, or at least given the impression that the movie is something else entirely.

However, over the course of the movie, the tone changes and during the police investigation things start to become somewhat more ghostly.

Taking inspiration from Dutch folklore, Moloch presents a unique story which could only have come from Holland, but it unfortunately does feel a little formulaic with too many elements. Those familiar with Scandinavian police dramas may also be intrigued by the start as it certainly feels like it’s going that way. However, amongst the supernatural and the procedural is a love story and putting that in the mix may be the straw that broke the camel’s back for some.

It also feels somewhat televisual and that may have something to do with the setting or the police investigation, but it all feels a little too familiar. There is a dramatic ending though which is quite different in tone from the rest of the movie, but it may be too little too late and the twist is let down by striking, but low budget CGI.

Facebook

Google

Twitter

We hope you're enjoying BRWC. You should check us out on our social channels, subscribe to our newsletter, and tell your friends. BRWC is short for battleroyalewithcheese.