Moloch was the last new movie trailer I saw during this most recent season of The Last Drive-in, and it got me interested as soon as I saw it. I didn’t get to see it as soon it was put on Shudder because I was doing a theme and I knew that it wouldn’t fit into the theme of alien encounters. I didn’t know too much about the movie, but I did know that. This is yet another amazing folk horror movie on the service.
Moloch is a movie from the Netherlands from Nico van den Brink and Daan Bakker. They both wrote the movie with van den Brink also directing the movie. I don’t know if the myth at the center of the plot was created for the movie or an actual myth from the area. Either way it made for a compelling story and a fantastic folk horror movie. Van den Brink did a fantastic job directing this movie.
Sallie Harmsen, Anneke Blok, Markoesa Hamer, Fred Goessens, and Alexandre Willaume all put in amazing performances. We get to spend the most time with Harmsen and get to feel the world she lives in. The journey she goes on throughout the movie is haunting and how she handles the character’s experience expertly. Both Blok and Goessens do amazing work as the parents of the lead. Everyone that portrays members of the family make what they go through even more compelling. Willaume does a fantastic job of playing the outsider that serves as our way of learning about the myth at the center of the story.
The effects in Moloch are fantastic. The practical effects really sale the myth with all of the bodies that are found in the marsh. That’s not mentioning the marriage of practical and computer effects for the biggest reveal, which I don’t want to spoil. The music by Ella van der Woude is fantastic. The score makes the atmosphere of the movie incredibly intense.
Moloch is a fantastic folk horror movie from the Netherlands that rushes towards the climax but doesn’t leave you feeling empty. The ending is a little bit of a downer but that’s kind of the usual for folk horror. Moloch is another fantastic Shudder original and fits in with their selection of folk horror. I give Moloch 8.5 violins out of 10.