With visceral images and sound so crisp it’s unsettling, Stoker paints a disturbing portrait of a tainted family and what it means to come from “bad blood.” It’s an American gothic fairytale (minus the traditional happy ending) and India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) is its sullen princess, waiting to be awakened by a decidedly sick and twisted prince.

Just by looking at the credits, Stoker is intriguing before the film even begins rolling. The script was written by former Prison Break actor (and Princeton English grad) Wentworth Miller, who shopped it around Hollywood under a pen name. And it’s directed by revered Korean director Park Chan-wook (Oldboy) in his English-speaking debut. It doesn’t get any less intriguing once it starts. One of the first scenes on screen is the jarring image of India removing a saddle shoe and carefully popping a blister. Indeed there’s something festering inside this teenager, but that comes to the surface later.

After her father (Dermot Mulroney) dies on her 18th birthday, India’s long-lost Uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode) comes to visit. He’s welcomed into the family’s sprawling, creaky mansion by India’s beautiful, yet bored mother, Evelyn (Nicole Kidman) – but India’s not quite as quick to embrace this relative she never knew she had. Charlie’s pristine looks hide sinister intentions. Looking like an off-kilter Ken doll with a wide, piercing stare and a slight smile just this side of creepy, we know something’s not quite right about Charlie from the start. He charms the attention-starved Evelyn, but it’s India on whom he’s really fixated.

As the film goes on, Charlie brings out India’s darkest desires and attempts to awaken what he believes is her “true nature.” Her father had trained her as a hunter, perhaps to keep her dark tendencies at bay – but Charlie seeks to unleash them, partly by revealing that he’s the same way. He stokes the fire, if you will. Without giving too much away, let’s just say the two make a pretty lethal combination.

Mia Wasikowska, who, to me, has been consistently brilliant in everything I’ve seen her in, takes on this role with equal aplomb. It’s a departure for the 23-year-old Australian, an edgier choice, and she nails it. While everyone raves about Jennifer Lawrence, Wasikowska has carved out an equally great career path – albeit in a much quieter way. This girl’s got staying power.

Kidman is perfect in the role of Evelyn. If Charlie and India are spiders, Evelyn is like a butterfly under glass. She’s trapped in a house that’s large yet stifling, and she’s trapped with a daughter she’ll never understand. Goode gives you goosebumps as Charlie – and not the pleasant kind, which is exactly the point. The British actor, so charming in real life, uses that charm on screen in ways that’ll make you squirm.

Chan-wook’s choices set a chilling tone throughout.

Spiders crawl up legs, saddle shoes lay scattered ominously across a bed, blood spatters on pure white flowers, a basement light swings like a pendulum, a metronome ticks as if counting down a bomb. All these elements help enhance the already-disturbing script into something much more powerful. He also gives the film a timeless quality – the house seems frozen in time and its exact location is never revealed. The way the characters dress also seems vaguely out of another era.

At the end, there are still many questions to be answered, but it’s unclear if certain plot holes were intentional or not. For instance, if Uncle Charlie never met India, how was he so sure she was just like him? What made him confident she had the same dark intentions? Was it supposed to be some psychic blood-line connection? And I can’t say I was on board with the incestuous undertones throughout the film. Yes, it contributed to the film’s twisted psyche, but it also teetered on the verge of camp.

Like the spider imagery suggests, Stoker makes your skin crawl. It stokes and provokes, and you may not know exactly how to feel in the end, but you’ll have quite a stimulating time figuring it out.

Synopsis:

After India’s father dies, her Uncle Charlie, who she never knew existed, comes to live with her and her unstable mother. She comes to suspect this mysterious, charming man has ulterior motives and becomes increasingly infatuated with him.