The Ninth Gate

Polanski demonstrates once again that he is a master of horror who relies less on effects than on setting a mood and providing insinuations. Johnny Depp plays Dean Corso, a specialist for rare books who is up to every trick – a sort of Philip Marlowe of the antiquarian profession. A rich client sends him on a search for three books for which, reportedly, the Devil in person has created a number of illustrations. The trip takes Corso to Spain, Portugal und France. Dreary bricks and mortar, libraries filled with Satanic verses, occult rituals in castles – Polanski tells a dark tale that makes one shiver, and indulges in a little irony towards all the occultism.