Roman Polanski has had a few films in the horror genre. You may have heard of Rosemary's Baby, The Fearless Vampire Killers (okay, so it's a comedy but still worthy of note), and Repulsion. Rosemary's Baby is probably his most well known horror film and rightly so. But I'm going to talk about another film, the final horror film as of yet from Mr. Polanski. Made in 1999 and starring Johnny Depp and Frank Langella. THE NINTH GATE.
Dean Corso is a man who deals in rare books. Boris Balkan, a rare book collector, hires him to investigate the authenticity of an extremely rare book in his collection. The book the Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows, written by a man in the 17th century supposedly in collaboration with Lucifer himself. Only three copies are said to have survived. Mr. Balkan wants to know if his copy is the original. He has the world's largest collection of satanic books, The Nine Gates being the rarest and most coveted of them all.
Corso travels to Europe on Balkan's dime and tracks down the second copy of the book. The books each contain nine engravings. On further inspection Corso discovers that each engraving is signed. Six of them are signed with the letters A.T. (the initials of the book's author) and the other three are signed L.C.F. Another rare book dealer who has studied the book believes the other signature to mean Lucifer. In the engravings signed L.C.F. the pictures are different in subtle ways. Balkan's copy and the second copy each have different engravings. Together they make six of the nine engravings. Corso theorizes that the last copy has the last three engravings signed by Lucifer.
Corso notices people following him. The owner of the second copy ends up dead, the engravings of his copy stolen. Corso is attacked and nearly killed, the copy in his possession nearly swiped. A young woman with red hair and unnatural green eyes comes to his rescue. She begins appearing wherever he does and saving his life. Corso reluctantly allows her to accompany him. When they track down the final copy the owner is killed, engravings stolen, and house burned to the ground.
Corso uncovers a satanic cult plot. Balkan appears, kills the cult leader, and takes all nine engravings to long-forgotten castle ruins. Corso follows him and watches him as he attempts to summon Lucifer himself and open the ninth gate to the kingdom of shadows. But Balkan's ritual fails, one of his nine engravings still a fake. Corso takes them and tracks down the final engraving. And that's when the gates open up...
The Ninth Gate is like a satanic detective story. The story unfolds in intriguing ways and keeps you wondering if the books really do have the power to summon evil. The acting is good and the plot is entertaining (based off the book The Club Dumas). It's hard to take for some people as this subject matter is extremely dark and taken very seriously. After all, what's more frightening than the devil? If you're a Polanski fan then you've no doubt seen it and realize it's a quality film. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's a slower film but no less captivating. The ending isn't as strong as Rosemary's Baby but the film as a whole is strong.
Overall Ranking: 6 out of 10
Nude-O-Meter: 3 out of 10
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