Featured Audience Ratings

• _kelly .

  
  A step above the typical horror movie; this is more accurately described as a surrealistic/existential thriller. The most remarkable thing about this movie is that it is engaging, it whips by and leaves the viewer wanting more. The pace is incredible, the rendering of Mephistopheles… More
  A step above the typical horror movie; this is more accurately described as a surrealistic/existential thriller. The most remarkable thing about this movie is that it is engaging, it whips by and leaves the viewer wanting more. The pace is incredible, the rendering of Mephistopheles is unforgettable, odd, and distinctly without religious trappings. Actually, that is another quite remarkable thing about this film that it avoids religion altogether and instead approaches the Faust story as one man's degrading and distorting vision of life. Not as gory as it is said to be, but extremely atmospheric and included gore is pleasing and effective. This film assumes the audience's prior knowledge of the Faust legend, as some plot events may seem arbitrary, illogical, or unjustified (particularly the end may not make sense) when it is in fact representative of the details in Goethe's and Marlowe's Faustus and Faust respectively. You don't have to be familiar with those texts though, a quick synopsis review on wikipedia will do to give you enough plot knowledge for this. Not at all a disappointing version of Faust, but indeed a very modern and effective rendering.

• Eduardo C

  
  Set in Madrid in the near future, this 'retelling' of the Faustus mythos owes less to Goethe's battle between good and evil or Marlowe's ultimate price for the ultimate pride than it does to Albert Camus and Frederick Nietzsche. This film is very morally ambiguous,… More
  Set in Madrid in the near future, this 'retelling' of the Faustus mythos owes less to Goethe's battle between good and evil or Marlowe's ultimate price for the ultimate pride than it does to Albert Camus and Frederick Nietzsche. This film is very morally ambiguous, not so much about right and wrong as it is about a man ultimately coming to grips with his own desires. The setting is harrowingly bleak, masterfully rendered, urban decay oozes out of the screen. It is hardly decoration, however, and is used literally as a character, reflecting the good doctor's descent into a 'hell' of his own devising. The performances are strong, but the film ultimately feels incomplete. A strong knowledge of the Faust legend helps, but even so it leaves so much to interpretation that it feels like it is missing a few transition sequences. Still, there is a lot to be said for an absolute lack of (thank god) exposition. Worth seeing, but very intellectually demanding.