"Stoker" - A Beautiful and Creepy "Coming-Of-Age" Psychological Thriller - Reviewed!
Stoker (2013)
Okay, you heard it here first (I'm guessing). "Stoker" is Chan-Wook Park's best film. Not just his best film since "Oldboy". His best film. Full stop.
India Stoker has just turned 18 when her father dies and her uncle Charlie mysteriously turns up. However, there's something strange going on with the uncle and, as it turns out, there may be something strange going on with India too. India's mother finds that her late husband's brother reminds her of her husband when he was younger and she finds herself comforted by his attention, particularly since her relationship with her husband had been distant in the time before his death. However, India is not sure how to feel about Charlie's arrival....
The "twisted misfit girl" horror movie has a lot of great examples: "Ginger Snaps", "May", "The Loved Ones", "The Woman", of course there's the classic "Carrie", and more recently "Excision". (Arguably "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not", starring Audrey Tautou, deserves to be in this list. It's not an obvious addition, but I think that film deserves a lot more attention than it currently receives. In this case, Mia Wasikowska (perhaps mainly known as 'that girl who played Alice in Tim Burton's lame "Alice In Wonderland" sequel/reboot/whatever), shows not only that she is an absolutely incredible actress more than capable of holding her own against the well-recognised talent of Nicole Kidman, but that she can turn in one of the best performances in this particular horror genre.
I had two worries going into this film. The first seems fairly trivial now. The trailer had clear implied sexual goings-on and that sort of thing can sometimes detract from a film. Thankfully the sexual side of things pretty much remains implied and serves to build up the tension between the characters rather than getting in the way. (Do people even know what I'm talking about or am I just ranting? I just don't care if the characters in my movies are "at it" okay? Sure, make it clear that sexual goings-on are going on, but don't waste time on that stuff!)
The other worry was in relation to Chan-Wook Park. I keep coming back to his movies and I recognise that he's a great director, but by this stage, to be quite frank, I'd been getting pissed off. Things in Park's movies were just getting too silly. Even "Oldboy"'s incest-related plot-elements seemed to go a little off the deep end, but the film seemed to have earnt that. (Even right at the start of "Oldboy", the guy with the little white dog was a bit of a bizarre figure.) "Lady Vengeance" seemed to feature a whole colourful array of bizarre characters and I felt it lacked focus. "I'm A Cyborg, But That's Okay" was set in a mental hospital and seemed to give many of the mental patients superpowers. It felt like a rather bizarre representation of mental illness and I had a hard time getting into it. Then finally, the recent "Thirst" was a very meandering story which never seemed to be able to take the premise of vampires seriously.
"Stoker" doesn't get too silly. The whole crazy family angle isn't played entirely straight, but the premise is handled consistently. With a bit of suspension of disbelief I could always just about imagine that this was taking place in the real world and the characters felt a lot more real than in Park's recent films. I also felt that the performances seemed more subtle than Park's films have involved since "Oldboy". Nicole Kidman, Mia Wasikowska and Matthew Goode all give absolutely gripping performances which get pretty intense at times. "Stoker" is also a very beautiful film, wonderfully shot with plenty of neat little tricks when it portrays the events of the film. The interactions between the characters are key to "Stoker" and the way the events are portrayed always emphasises the issues beneath the surface between them.
The only part of the film I thought was lacking (and to be frank, this was a lot easier to swallow than "Oldboy"'s whole incest nonsense) was the rather clichéd bully figure. India Stoker is meant to be an 18 year old girl. She is in the highest grade of high school and I had trouble believing that at that stage there would still be people in the school who had this kind of bully mentality. (Perhaps things are different in the US? In the UK people can leave at 16, so the people staying on til 18 are volunteering to do A Levels and much more keen to succeed.) When the bully figure actively threatens the girl with violence in public with only the smallest of justifications, I found it hard to believe that anyone would support him or that he would even be able to convince himself that it was okay. But then again, the way it resolves, I think I can let this slide.
"Stoker" is a beautiful and creepy "coming-of-age" horror story and one of the best of its kind. I highly recommend that any fans of quality horror check it out (and that includes those who like to think that they only like "psychological thrillers". This is more of a "Black Swan" or "Take Shelter" style horror movie than a "Friday The 13th" horror movie). And if you've been following Chan-Wook Park's career (and especially if, like me, you were getting a little fed up with the quirkiness), you'll be glad to know that this is Park back on top form.
A+