Stoker

Year of release : 2013

Run time : 1h35min

Genre : Drama / Horror

Cast : Mia Wasikowska, Matthew Goode, Nicole Kidman, Dermot Mulroney

The movie was written by actor Wentworth Miller and directed by Park Chan-wook.

The movie opens with the ending, while India is looking at something, interested,with a hint of a smile upon her face. Her voice narrates in the background,setting the mood for the movie (that's the only time she narrates,by the way).

It then goes to the funeral, where we hear the father died in a car accident.

India's father died on her 18th birthday. And speaking of birthdays, every year for her birthday she receives these ugly,ugly shoes ( even for a man ) which look exactly alike (that she always wears)! She thought it was her father, but now she thinks it's the servant (considering how old she was,how could she climb the tree?!).

At the post funeral reception, she meets her uncle that she didn't know existed, who wants to talk to her, but she acts like a spoiled little kid,running away from him.

When he finally catches her ,he tells her he's staying at their place.

The uncle, even at the funeral, is always smiling, and is happy! He has this weird first conversation with India, in which he tells her he feels at a disadvantage, because she's standing below him! Shouldn't it be the other way around?!

India says he looks like her father, but Matthew Goode and Dermot Mulroney do not look alike!

Her mother seems interested in him,in the romantic sense.

The servant disappears, and an aunt comes to show her respects days after the funeral. She seems scared of Charlie, just like the servant who disappeared, and after telling Charlie where she stays ,she changes the hotel. Charlie finds her,and she disappears too.

India is bullied at school by a group of teenage boys, and when they pick on her again, one of them trying to punch her ,she stabs him in the hand.

One night, after she runs away from home because she sees her mother with her uncle, she meets a boy who was nice to her. Trying to prove something to herself, she starts something with this boy, she doesn't want to finish. The boy pulls a 180 on her, punches her, and wants to r@pe her. Her uncle (who shows way too much interest in her) comes to the rescue, and str@ngles him!

At home, after she helps him bury the body, she m@sturbates thinking of her uncle k!lling the boy!'cause that's what gets her hot!

India has incredible sight and hearing,for some unknown reason, I guess because she's a psychopath,like her uncle.

So, throughout the movie, we're told India used to hunt with her father. Her father knew she had the same condition his brother did, and was trying to keep her from k!lling people .Now India gets turned on, whenever she thinks of k!lling someone.

Her uncle confesses he came for India, to take her with him, as they are the same.

The title of the movie is India's family last name.

The movie doesn't make any sense, unless is about the uncle having a thing for the niece he met after he k!lled his own brother. The movie is so dark (thematically speaking), and it barely had a plot, at the end I was wondering what was it about! About India becoming her uncle? Why did she k!ll the police officer,because he wasn't after her! The movie doesn't even have an ending! The movie doesn't have a climax,nothing! Even the scenes which are supposed to be climactic fall flat because of India's lack of energy,she is always moving in slow motion!!!

It's boring, weird.. 

There's also these scenes with spiders crawling on India's legs, which don't go anywhere.. the house looks clean, as they have a few servants ,although the mother doesn't do anything all day (and she can't cook either),so where do all these spiders come from?

I didn't like their conversations, the people who liked the movie say the movie is smart, but except for what India said about widows in the Victorian era, I didn't find anything they were saying or doing, smart. Everything seemed so staged and boring. Also, she says something like, 'we're not responsible for who we come to be'.Really? Really Wentworth? We have no choice, we can't choose how to act,how to behave,our faith is written in the stars?We always have a choice! The way you react to things makes you who you are!

The three leading characters, uncle Charlie,the mother and India (what an unfortunate name,Miller liked and picked !) are unlikeable,and I don't care for them,except for the uncle and India to get caught!

The actors were fine, Matthew Goode (one of my favorites) looked pale like a vampire,and sinister. I guess this is what they were going for. What is weird is that the actors were fine, but at the same time, everything was so boring, it felt when they were acting,usually against India, they had no one to bounce their lines against,as she was always so bored and boring,like she was a black hole sucking all the energy in, and the acting just fell flat.

As I recall, at the time, they asked Jodie Foster, Carey Mulligan, Colin Firth, Johnny Depp, to play in the movie, and I understand why they refused!

The only things I liked about the movie were the house's interior design, as in the bed's headboards, the mirrors, and Nicole Kidman's hair.

I don't remember the soundtrack,except for the old song Summer Wine. They play piano a lot, and India seems to get aroused whenever her uncle plays with her.

The movie was a box office bomb, as it grossed 12.1 million dollars (I gave it my money too, and got bored in the cinema room, at the time! I even have the DVD!) against a budget of 12 million, although it received positive reviews!

The movie is for rent / sale on Amazon, AppleTv, Fandango at Home, Sky Store.

Rating : The horror, the horror!

 

 

Below, my Stoker DVD.