Style over substance

Rating: 3/10 (29 September 2019)

It started really strong and I was beginning to get invested a lot. Especially due to the visuals and cinematography which was top notch. But the characters were so dumb and poorly written that it made no sense by the end about what the director vision was? Was he telling that cult is bad because pretty sure murdering 8 people while drugging them is not supposed to be enticing. Was he trying to say that anxiety or heartbreak can be overcome by joining a cult and burning your boyfriend alive? Yeah you can say he dint treat her right but the only worst thing I saw him do to her was miss her birthday. I couldn't understand the point of Dani's character. She is not a sociopath at the start but apparently dancing around with a group of women and being made a queen is all it takes. I also understand the she got a family in the end but even then this film is so self indulgent for the ending that it made no sense. Very poorly executed storyline. And the boys in this film are just a bunch of morons. They are just a plot point director uses to show how masculinity is bad and will get you killed while he glorifies a cult of people who have no hesitant in killing people. And never mind Pelle who is supposed to be the nice guy in the movie who brings his friends knowing they will get sacrificed has the most happy ending. Overall I dont get what the director thought when he wrote this film. I mean sure it has some amazing work camera and visual works but it genuinely feels like sadistic film with no real characters. Not saying you can't make a good film with that, just look at Shining. But like Kubrick you need to execute it perfectly or else you have a film with no real substance which unfortunately this film is.