The Golem (2018) Reviews

• not bad

  ryansiath2019-02-09

  The movie was a bit slow, but the acting was great, and the sets and cinematography were spot on. there was nothing new as far as horror tropes go, but i enjoyed watching!

• pretty original

  ops-525352019-02-06

  Actually i would rather have genred it as a mystery drama.(horror) film , just to lower the expectations from the nerdiest of the horror nerds. the film is taking place in the 1600's lithuania, were the plague are racing its razorblade through the population, and a jewish village where all the inhabitants are sound and healthy. they are accused for cursing the plague over the others and the battle is on.to defend oneself. the lead actress makes a golem to take revenge and seek protection for what has been done to them. there are slash and gore, and the golem takes the job wholeheartedly aka with hearts in his hand. the story about golem is not good enough explained in the script, and i think the film are slowpaced at some spots, and there are a few editor glitches inbetween , but overall it does the job good enough to make a grumpy old man look away from the screen at its worst slashermoments. the visual product are brilliant, also the decor and settings. and we have all got a new ''spittin image'' of Liv Ullmann in Hani Furstemberg. do watch out for her acting, it is good. this is a film i recommend very much.

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• Pretty lackluster

  terrencepatrix2019-02-06

  This movie was well shot, well acted, and the special effects were adequate. The plot, action, and horror were all just missing for the majority of the movie. The story is really simple, it's centered around a small Jewish community in Europe during the 1700's when a bout of plague starts ravaging a neighboring community of Catholic's. The Catholic's blame the plague on Jewish "magic" basically because their community was left untouched due to how remote and segregated their lifestyles are. Well an angry mob of Catholic's arrive with a very sick child and demand the Jewish folk cure her or face death. One of the towns folk takes it upon herself to summon the Golem, an ancient protector formed out of clay and tasked with defending the Jewish people. Which it...kinda does? So far everything is fine, simple and easy to understand as that's essentially the whole plot. The problem is almost NOTHING happens for the majority of the movie and it's extremely slow paced. When the "horror" finally happens there's only about 10 minutes of movie left and they rush right through it without showing much of it. And then it ends. So not terrible, but that's the best review I can personally write without giving any spoilers. It's watchable but you're not missing anything if you skip it.

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• Missing in Action

  PhilipGHarris2018-09-16

  Horror is a tricky genre to get right, especially since it has so many facets itself, providing a rich tapestry for its fans. The Golem seeming to wish to evoke the feeling of one of the Universal classics of old, yet failing to do so on many levels. The majority of this failure seems to lie somewhere between the writer's desk and the editor's room, as there often seems to be a lack of explanation for events. Which in turn makes it feel like they were there initially and then edited out. For example, at a mid-point in the film the female protagonist, Hanna, tells her husband that the golem likes music. Yet, we never seem to have been given any evidence of that fact. If this only happened once, it could be forgiven, but actions and sentences like this occur throughout the movie. With other unforgivable moments, including Vladimir, shooting at the golem multiple times in quick succession with his flintlock pistol. Something which caused the audience to laugh at a moment which was meant to provoke tension, causing a distraction and breaking the engagement, The film also having odd moments of extreme gore which seem slightly out of character with the rest of the movie. Which is a shame, as many other elements in the movie work well, including the main female lead, cinematography and general direction throughout (Never have plague doctors been used so meanicingly). Leaving the real failing of the film being the dialogue, which is often trite and clumsy. The Golem would probably have been improved if they had steered away from the named monster and created something completely new instead. As this would have given them more freedom to develop the situation, but what is left is confused and feels unfinished, making it one of those horror films which will be enjoyed for its failings, rather than its creepiness.

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• A bit slow.

  deloudelouvain2019-02-14

  I have mixed feeling about The Golem. I was up for watching a horror movie but I don't think you could categorize this movie as such. There are some gore moments but you never get that creepy tension while watching The Golem, a kid covered in mud isn't the most frightening thing to watch. The acting was okay, nothing award winning but nothing terrible either. The story is something new so that's a good point but it's also much too slow, too many moments where you just wait for something to happen and that is, if you're a bit tired, not good.

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