The Golem

The Golem

Starring Hani Furstenberg, Ishai Golan, Brynie Furstenberg, Konstantin Anikienko
Directed by Doron Paz & Yoav Paz

The Story:
In a small Jewish town in Lithuania in the 1600s, Hanna (Hani Furstenberg) and her husband Benjamin (Ishai Golan) are trying to have another child after their only son tragically passed away, but Hanna has been barren for seven years.  While other women in the town (and Benjamin's Rabbi father) want Benjamin to leave Hanna, he stays with her.

The town is thrown into an uproar when a nearby Gentile group led by Vladimir (Aleksey Tritenko) invades the town, accusing them of casting a spell on their town that caused a great plague to practically wipe them out.  Vladimir's eldest daughter is infected, and threatens to burn the town down if she can't be healed.  Hanna, having secretly hidden in meetings between Benjamin, his father, and fellow men of the town who practiced Kabbalah, decides to create a Golem to help save their town.  Instead of a hulking creature, the Golem (Konstantin Anikienko) takes on the form of a boy - the same age Hanna's son would've been - which immediately draws Hanna in.  As she unleashes him to protect her community, she learns the Golem's truly dark nature, and is forced to make an impossible decision - destroy him, or let him live and possibly end her community himself.


The Superior:
There isn't a lot of films that center on Jewish traditions, especially the horror genre.  "The Golem" is unique in that it tells the story of one of Judaism's earliest "ghost stories" if you will, and delivers with a compelling story that's filled with tense moments and a tremendous performance by Hani Furstenberg.

The golem is based off Jewish folklore where you write down the hidden name of God on a parchment, create a human body using mud or clay, and putting the scroll in its mouth.  This causes the golem to come to life, and serves as a protector of those who created it, but cannot speak since the scroll is embedded in its mouth, and the only way to stop it is by taking the scroll out of its mouth.  It's a fascinating legend that seemingly inspired Mary Shelley to write her own golem tale - Frankenstein.

"The Golem" doesn't sugar-coat the concept, but rather gives it real life by providing a thoughtful, compelling story instead of just mindless blood and gore (although there is a lot of that as well).  The idea that the golem creature emerges as a child for the woman who crafted it (after losing her own child) adds a deeper maternal feeling to the story instead of just a mindless hulking creature.  It's hard to imagine how a young child can create such devastation, which adds to the shocking moments when we see him come to his full power.

Hani Furstenberg shines as Hanna, a barren woman who's pretty much the outcast of the town - a woman who can't provide her husband a child in a culture that encourages child-bearing.  She endures the mental torture of loosing her child, along with the public opinion about her - especially from her husband's father, who's the chief Rabbi of the town.  He wants his son to leave her and be with a woman who can bear him a child, but he refuses - yet we see the toll it takes on their marriage.  When the golem child enters the picture, Hanna becomes overjoyed, and really finds a power all her own.  When she discovers what the golem can do, instead of trying to seek its destruction, she fully embraces his nature and allows him to grow and develop, letting him do what he was literally created to do, which is something vastly different from other films like this where the mother seemingly wants to end the evil child's life.

The relationship between Hanna and the golem child is at the forefront of the story, giving more than just a mindless horror film, but instead wraps the horror in an intricate story of a mother's loss and pain mixed with her newfound joy at having a new child - even if it's pretty much evil.  It's like "Rosemary's Baby" or "The Omen," but this time around the mother loves the child's nature and sets out to protect him from the evils outside - as well as the threats from within.

The cinematography is beautiful, especially since it localizes on a small idyllic town set apart from the terrors of the world around it.  A plague has ravaged the world, but has left this town untouched due to its isolation, and it looks like the most quaint, beautiful town you could find.  All that loveliness soon turns dark when its invaded, and threatened with destruction, and you can see the scenery changing as the film progresses - from bright and colorful to dark and dreary, much like the continuation of the film itself.


The Subpar:
The supporting characters around Hani Furstenberg don't really get a lot of moments to shine, offering little more than stock characters who never really showcase any real emotions.

Obviously the film wasn't produced on a multi-million dollar budget, and you can tell in its lack of special effects and how the golem kills its victims - mostly by using telekinesis to blow their heads off.  It's a bit above a SyFy Original, but is also unintentionally humorous and takes away from the seriousness of the film.

The film ends rather abruptly, and somewhat simply, which is a shame because it provided a very thoughtful, powerful story up until that point.


The Summary:
Mixing horror with mystic Jewish traditions, "The Golem" tells a story that many people have never heard, and while its small budget doesn't allow it to fully flourish, what it does give is a compelling - and surprisingly profound - horror story.


The Score: A-