Movie: Ninth Gate
Starring: Johnny Depp, Frank Langella
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller, Drama,
Year: 1999
Format: DVD
Plot: Corso is a book dealer who is hired to track down two of three copies of a book dating over 300 years old. While he's trekking across Europe tracking down the books, a cult of devil worshipers are following him, leaving a trail of dead bodies. Can he find the truth before anyone else gets killed?
Based on the book The Club Dumas, this is one of Johnny Depp's best work. A dark fable that feels like it could have been a Hitchcock film it's so rich with subliminal horror. Roman Polanski, who is famous for the movie
Rosemary's Baby co-wrote the screenplay.
This is one of those movies that has you doubting everything while sneaking in many layers of clues which has the viewer left putting together the puzzle along with the lead character.
The artwork done for the book's drawings alone are worth seeing this movie for.
Because of the timing of it's release, it got lost in the shuffle with so many other end of the world/the devil made me do it movies, that if it had been released a year earlier or later it might have reached a larger audience.
What do I think I learned from this film?
Everything and everyone has a destiny that they must follow and fulfill, even when they might not believe the path they are on. This is one of those films that makes you want to travel into this dark world, to believe along side the character that the seedier side of life can have an enlightening reward. And you have to enter into the extreme with a pure heart or greed will swallow you.