Poster of Stoker

Stoker

Drama, Thriller

Director: Park Chan-wook

Release Date: March 1, 2013

Where to Watch

A beautifully, disturbing film that I would not recommend for the average movie goer. Stoker resides in a bubble within our own world, a place relegated to the edges and containing such things as cell phones, schools, crappy motels, bullies. The film is predominantly shot from the subjective perspective of predators. Is it predictable? A lot, especially if you notice the Hitchcock homage. Is it realistic? Not at all & it doesn’t have to be, especially when the film consistently commits to a vision-incomplete action as the camera’s interrupted vision reflects the characters’ aberrant inner life, revisiting memories with flashbacks that seem like current events. Actions are rarely completely followed by the editing, but constantly interrupted creating a desire to see more, know more, move forward-great pacing. The audio and visual world reflects an interior world not like the regular viewers-not a supernatural world, but a world in which sounds and sights are different than for the raptor circling overhead. The main focus of the camera is never center screen but follows the edges, the corners, the movement in the background, stays far away, etc. This film is like the superior, darker reprise to Beautiful Creatures, except there is no struggle, but an awakening reflected by the vibrant colors of each scene. I would not mind seeing it again. Congratulations to the director, Chan-wook Park, making his English film debut and Wentworth Miller, the Princeton graduate and handsome actor best known for his role in Prison Break, making his writing debut.

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