The Ninth Gate

Title: The Ninth Gate (15)

Year: 1999

Running Time: 133 minutes

Director: Roman Polanski

Cast: Johnny Depp (Dean Corso), Frank Langella (Boris Balkan), Lena Olin (Liana Telfer) Notes: Won one award.

Rating: 9

Thoughts:   A dealer in rare books seeks out two copies of a demonic text and is drawn into a supernatural conspiracy.

Not a lot happens in terms of action, and that's the key to this excellent occult film. There's a constant feeling of threat and menace, and as it hardly ever manifests, the threat is all the more.

The story is excellent, playing on some nice occult moments and ideas. All the book owners are suitably odd, and some unexplained things happen. As you can imagine the direction is superb as is the lead.

The rest of the cast just feeds off that, and this never feels like it is slowing down, even with hardly any action. This is a solid thriller that keeps you gripped.

The end climax is perhaps the only letdown as it gets a little silly, but that doesn't take away from what has gone before. It's dark and moody, well acted, and the narrative keeps hitting you with new ideas and discoveries.