Watched: Stoker
I feel disgusting calling a film “dark and sexy”, but this is that to the letter - it’s powerfully erotic and incredibly disturbing, often at the same time. Directed by Park Chan-Wook, it follows 18-year-old India Stoker as she grows accustomed to the sudden intrusion of her dangerously attractive uncle into her life, following the sudden death of her father. Also thrown into the mix is her emotionally distant and selfish mother, and a small group of supporting actors who largely fulfil the role of the outside as a threat.
There’s a scene in this film where one of these peripheral characters tries to attack India, only to be strangled to death by the uncle. She watches him die even as he’s on top of her, and later masturbates in the shower thinking about his death. It’s a scene that’s deliberately uncomfortable to watch, but it gets at the intersection between sex and death that acts as a thread through this film. Matthew Goode is intoxicating to watch, regardless of his role (he elevated the Watchmen adaptation into something else), and Mia Wasikowska is at once virginal and deeply calculating.
This probably isn’t the right film for those who are easily triggered, but it’s a stellar piece of filmmaking, both narratively and the way it’s put together. It does excellent things with sound and silence, and features a score that haunted me for days. Hunt this down if you can.