a review of 魔鬼时光

HOOPTOBER XII NIGHT NINE: A beautifully-shot B&W folk horror/fantasy from Estonian director Rainer Sarnet. It's set in a 19th century Estonian village where folkloric creatures like werewolves and demons and witches are just a part of everyday life, with the villagers harnessing these supernatural powers to survive amidst the rule of an aloof Germanic baron (played by HUMAN CENTIPEDE's Dieter Laser!). The magic of the film is that very little of the folklore is directly explained, but is mostly presented through gorgeous monochrome visuals that situate us in the characters' POV. The plot is very simple -- a star-crossed romance between Liina, a strong-willed village girl and Hans, an oblivious peasant boy who only has eyes for the young baroness in the big house on the hill. There are individual shots and scenes in this movie that are both visually arresting and wildly absurd in their realization, but it never loses its nerve or veers into self-parody, maintaining a darkly enchanting fairytale tone throughout. Also, I learned after watching it that the actor who played Hans (Jörgen Liik) was married to Rea Lest, who played Liina. Tragically, Liik passed away of undisclosed causes at the age of 35, just two months ago.