The Golem is an Israeli horror movie set in a small village in Lithuania around 1673. It centers around a woman who sees her community terrorized by foreign invaders after plague spreads outside of it. In order to help them, she turns to a mythical creature known as golem to help her defend her people. My The Golem (2018) movie review is below.
One of the things that stood out to me was the acting. It was well performed by everyone, especially Hanna (Hani Furstenberg) and her husband Benjamin (Ishai Golan). The dialogue itself was not clever, but it was smooth and organic. There was a lot of emotional scenes going around as the characters were experiencing betrayals, death, frustration, and overall burden on how they will go about protecting their community while at the same time keeping a tight hold of their personal struggles from getting out. The boy was also intimidating with his dark cold stares. His presence was felt even though he never said a single word, which for such a young actor, was impressive.
Since a lot of people have heard of a tale of a Golem and his summoning to protect Jewsih community, the directors Doron Paz and Yoav Paz changed it up a bit and delivered a good amount of bloody gore. Some of it was CGI’d and looking a little too fake but most was done well. The onscreen violence is presented in its entirety or an aftermath of it was shown in graphic detail. Some of it was pretty surprising. The point is that the directors wanted to change it up a bit. You have a small community where all the secrets leak out and a woman who is failing in bringing a child into a world. She is expected to do this (not my words, but the feelings of the rabbi in the movie).
The entire community is centered around daily chores and prayers so they don’t interact with any outsiders. In fact, they don’t even seem to know how to protect themselves since violence is not their way of living life. In my opinion it is a foolish way of living life at this point in time is not necessarily known as a peaceful era. However, I do understand religious aspect of their life so I can see how they are controlled by it.
The standout performance was definitely Hanna (Hani Furstenberg) as she struggles to keep her husband happy. Hanna also wants to fulfill a role in her community, and also cope with creating a creature that provides protection but is essentially born out of evil and darkness. She is emotional yet very strong. Hanna is also stupid but understandable so as she tries to keep herself together knowing that the thing she has made is not a substitute for a son she tried to raise. The movie overall has a good sense of timing. These aspects of her life eventually get a decent resolution considering she was pulled emotionally and psychologically in many directions. This could drive anyone insane.
Overall a fun flick. It never felt slow and it had enough unique elements and character development in it to keep me watching. It also had some great performances from the main cast which felt like a more expensive production than it was.
Thanks for reading my The Golem (2018) movie review.
