Review of The Childhood of a Leader (2016) by Chitra R — 06 Apr 2017

Moody and foreboding.

That's it.

But what an experience.

The young boy presented here will become a highly influential, horrific Hitlerian leader -.

That is it for the premise.

And the events of this film create what will allow him to become the fascist we fully know becomes a terror later. As the story unravels, we fear what is now in the making.

And oh the music and feeling are incredible.

Richly rendered, stylish and gothic, tho a barely PG-rated affair where the highly intense score perfectly sets the tone and speaks of undeniable darkness.

You immediately feel like you are in for a captivatingly spooky ride.

The tightly controlled action is set in the early 1900s, and you are either made curious by the minimalistic story amid the pervasive atmosphere, or you absolutely miss the point and get nothing out of it.

If your mind fills in the gaps and considers each image and each subtle revelation, you are in for a mind blowing tale of the ultimate in mysterious dread that never fully reveals its secrets, and holds you in its perplexing grasp long after you have finished the film.

For everyone else who is waiting for the foreboding to lead to bloody bodies, shock or gore, they will be sorely if not angrily disappointed, hence the dichotomy of reviews either enjoying or dismissing this cinematic experience.

To the horror crowd, its a suspense movie where nothing actually happens.

I saw where it was going, and decided to buy-in, if you will, so I had to suspend my own desire to imagine shocking twists, dead bodies, jump scares, death and destruction - none of which is here.

Go see The Omen, 1976, for all that and more.

This movie is a sobering walk thru a dark cemetery, at times threatening and unnerving, but in the end thought provoking and overall generally low to moderately risky for most - a walk in a dark park for the rest.

4 empty coffins out of 5.