Moloch is a new horror film directed and partly written by Nico van den Brink. For this film he has only directed short films. This is his first directing work for a film that lasts longer than an hour. The film is about Betriek (Sallie Harmsen), who lives on the edge of a peat swamp. Strange things happen in the neighborhood where she lives, from a dead person to strange figures that walk around her house in the evening. Betriek goes to investigate, to discover what is going on. Together with the foreign agent Jonas (Alexandre Willaume), she learns about the mythical history of the peat swamp that is bewitched by an evil spirit, who harass surrounding residents with her presence. Together, Betriek and Jonas must try to stop this evil force before more victims fall. With this film Nico van de brink tries to make a real Dutch horror film, which makes use of typical Dutch features such as the Veen. They use historical elements such as the story of the girl from Ede. They manage to incorporate this element in the film in a creative way, but otherwise they copy many elements from other horror films. These copied moments come from lesser-known horror films, but a horror connoisseur can still recognize the moments. For them, this film is so familiar without really creating tension. In the end, it can come off as a long-winded movie. Nico van den Brink and co-writer Daan Bakker should have come up with more unique horror elements of their own, to have had a more extraordinary Dutch horror film. The visual effects are often not believable. For suspense it works better if the ghost stays in the background or in the darkness, but when the ghost comes into view more clearly you can see that this was placed in the film with CGI. This lowers the credibility and subsequently the tension level. The props they use for the bog bodies seem credible, but unfortunately little is done with them. Due to the quality of the film, the acting isn't really special either. Sallie Harmsen and Alexandre Willaume do well as the lead roles, but sometimes the film seems to be more about their relationship than the mystery of the peat swamp. The rest of the film cast also doesn't get much material to work with in the film and come across more as extras to produce the story.
Review of Moloch
