The Ninth Gate (1999)
7/10
Rare book dealer (Johnny Depp) is hired to find and compare two remaining copies of an ancient occult book believed to contain secrets for summoning the devil and powers.
Based on the book The Club Dumas, and directed by Roman Polanski. Starts off with plenty of intrigued as Depp motions the endeavor into a film noir hunt for the book with plenty of dangers whilst an interesting puzzle develops regarding the books. It's a coherent and bookended film.
Unfortunately, instead of amping the puzzle à la National Treasure or The Da Vinci Code, the puzzle becomes more simple, to the point of near irrelevance. The pace also appears to slow, as character development and suspense seem to cease. Ironically, the occult horror, so palpable in Polanski's Rosemary's Baby, is not pursued, and as the film progresses there's ever less a feeling of danger. The final scenes seem more a dry, reluctant footnote that highlights the lack of material at hand; as items seemed to be checkoff the cart, but few items added.
__________________
.
.
.
. ![](http://www.horror.com/forum/signaturepics/sigpic86987_21.gif)
Last edited by Sculpt; 01-15-2019 at 12:55 PM.
|