I recently pulled a subscription for AMC+ and with it came Shudder, IFC Films Unlimited, and the Sundance channel. Not a bad deal for $4.99 a month and the only “commercials” I had to watch were the four at the beginning and then I was able to watch Moloch uninterrupted in its entirety.

I don’t have much experience with AMC+ but I do have some knowledge of Shudder. If you’re unaware Shudder is a channel that caters to the horror lovers out there. But that might be a misnomer as you’ll probably need to slog through 15 truly terrible movies (like the 4th installment of Hell House, Shithouse Manor, or something, which was easily the worst movie I’ve ever seen, at least for some time anyways) to find that one golden gem. Now I don’t quite remember if Moloch was an AMC+ offering or Shudder offering, but it turned out to be one of the gems.

Beautifully acted, produced, and a gripping story to the end, Moloch is one of those tales of pagan horror and sects that believe in them in the current day. Being a somewhat heavy enjoyer of all movies, I’ve become quite the critic of everything I watch now, especially if it’s horror. But you can never tell if you’re going to enjoy a movie until YOU actually watch it. Sometimes the best movies are those shoestring budget found footage types and sometimes the big movie houses latch onto something special and I believe that’s the case with Moloch. Now I’m not sure if a big movie house produced Moloch but it was produced in Holland, or The Netherlands for the uninitiated, so I’d be unaware of the big movie houses there but the extremely polished nature of Moloch belies a money heavy production. I’ll need to add that most of the movie is in Dutch, with some parts in English, but the translation was great as I believe it put forth the movies Dutch nature and what it ultimately succeeded in portraying.

At this point in the review I go to iMDB for some details and confirm Moloch was a Shudder production or distribution buyout, which is surprising to me. I actually did have to slog through 4 or 5 movies on Shudder to find this one diamond in the rough and I suppose the torture was worth it.

Featuring Sallie Harmsen, Alexandre Willaume, and Anneke Blok, directed by Nico van den Brink, and written by Nico van den Brink and Daan Baker. Here’s the blurb form iMDB:

Betriek lives at the edge of a peat bog in the North of the Netherlands. When she and her family are attacked by a random stranger one night, Betriek sets out to find an explanation. The more she digs, the more she becomes convinced that she is being hunted by something ancient.

iMDB Storyline

If you’re a horror lover with a bent on pagan horror and sects Moloch is an offering you will definitely enjoy. For the rest of us neophytes it’s a tale that’s easy to understand if you’re Dutch, and the excellent nature of the English subtitling I believe conveys the proper nature of Moloch if you have to watch it with English subtitles as I did.

I’ll give it 4 out of 5 stars on my personal scale, which is simply based on whether I enjoyed it or not. So go and check it out if you trust my reviews. I believe Moloch is a story anyone can enjoy, especially the horror lovers among us.

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