This Roman Polanski mindbender, starring Johnny Depp, is one of my all-time favorite horror films. The story is smart and intricately weaved, with zero reliance on gore or cheap gimmicks.
Depp delivers an understated, mature performance as a modern day Don Quixote on a quest to piece together an occult book supposedly written by Lucifer himself in the middle ages. He quickly comes to find that there is much competition for this prize.
As Depp plummets down the rabbit hole of Satanic elites, his universe gets stranger and stranger. Polanski masterfully uses creepy suspense and some kind of juju to keep the film tense and disturbing in even the most mundane moments. This is such a finely-tailored escalating plot, you’ll probably want to see it again. I always learn something from Polanski’s movies, as with Kubrick’s.
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