ndk__

The Dutch have a long-standing tradition of producing horrendous movies, with bad acting, poorly researched historical backgrounds and teeny tiny stories spread out all over the place.

This movie was no exception. Some of the props were nice (uniforms, vehicles), but o my, the dialogs! Too much explanation, too clumsy, and way too much feel good.

My inner child cringed at every bump in the road to perdition.

I'm tempted to end this snarly review with a nasty pun about this being the mother of all snuff movies (as all things lovely about film in general are brutally slaughtered), but that would not be fair on the dog, who admittedly did his very best and had a beautiful smile.

Although the original Floris series was on the air way before my time, I have watched these black-and-white episodes on video several times because they have their nostalgic qualities (even if you don't particularly like Rudger Hauer, which I don't). I had been looking forward to "Floris the movie", because I sincerely hoped to find in it the same nostalgic qualities, mixed with all of the achievements of modern-day cinematography.

Alas, I have been deeply disappointed. Shallow, silly, tasteless and without a proper plot to support the actors. What total, utter crap!!! Not a bad idea to have a female version of the original Sindela, but where is the romance à la Burt Lancaster in his pirate movies? And what's with the shitty outfit - can't we do better now that film business in the Netherlands has matured? No, no, no, I know some of the actors could have done better. A missed opportunity, to say the least.

I went to this movie without expecting a copy of The Sixth Sense, which was good because it wasn't.

OK, it does bear some similarities - it isn't till the very end that the pieces of the puzzle fall into place, the build up of suspense is very slow but steady, and the fairly straightforward story is cleverly narrated.

What I liked about this movie, is that it didn't focus on the obvious thrills of Hollywood blockbusters. Yes, I immediately knew there had to be a logical explanation for the creatures in the woods, and still I found myself intrigued by the feelings of fear, the behaviour arising from fear, the way fear had crept into the lives of these people. The existence of the creatures had so effectively scared the s**t out of these people, just the mere story about and odd occurrence of these monsters was enough!

In the end, we find out why the creatures are there. Afterwards, I found myself wondering if I would go that far for some peace and quiet, if it is humane to instill fear in others for your own selfish reasons, if it is OK to deprive your offspring of certain aspects of the world. There is a resemblance to religion: people who raise their children with strict religious beliefs, always set out (stern) barriers, thus restricting their view on the world. Is that a good thing? I wonder.