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Stoker (2013) – A Thrilling and Freudian Bildungsroman
*This article is spoiler-free* Stoker (2013), upon greeting, its title steers you toward the literary classic Dracula by Bram Stoker. Though used here metaphorically, this aptronym foreshadows Uncle Charlie’s deft stratagem to permeate the lives of the newly grieving, once picture-perfect suburban family. Armoured with the phrenology of the Dark Triad, Matthew Goode gifts an irresistible performance of a 21st-century vampiric Uncle Charlie under Park Chan-wook’s expert directing. The South Korean cinematic sovereignty chose this film to make its debut in the Anglosphere in 2013. That should be enough reason to give this film a shot. However, let me be clear: this film is not about vampires.
As India Stoker comes of age, she learns her father (Richard) has died in a car accident. Mia Wasikowska [who plays India] emits the same quaint charm she did in Alice in Wonderland, though this time a perturbing enigma. She wears her mother’s shirt, her father’s belt and a pair of shoes she was mysteriously gifted with each year she matured. Other times, she is cloaked in fastened cardigans like second-skin and knee-length pleats, traipsing between scenes sombrely.
Freudian Slips and the Electra Complex
Richard was India’s confidant and Evelyn (Nicole Kidman) was merely the woman who birthed her. Now the patriarch is gone, whatever is left between India and Evelyn is caustic and astringent. Until Uncle Charlie appears. Charlie was Richard’s younger brother, but the mother and daughter knew close to nothing about him, though he shared Richard’s eyes, which Evelyn remarked. Evelyn offered Charlie Richard’s clothes, his belt, and his car. He assumed Richard’s place. Every time Evelyn spoke, she spat with bitter disdain about India’s close relationship with her father. Anytime India replied it was snarky and accusatory, questioning if Evelyn even grieved her father at all. India’s grief eventually projects onto Charlie and manifests into fascination.
Although Charlie entertained Evelyn’s transgressions, the drunken dancing and hushed kisses, his eyes forever remained on India. She finds him in every room, around every corner and often in the distance too. At her father’s funeral, at school, where all the teenage girls gushed over him and the playground, she ran through with a boy whom she recently developed a crush on.
Atmospheric Setting in Stoker
A scene showed the brushing of hair enhanced by the sound of the bristles gently caressing the strands, transitioning into a bed of reeds. This was one of many phenomenal shots which will undoubtedly cement its place in film schools globally.
Throughout the film, the sensory experience underpins India’s awakening – the movie is a bildungsroman chronicling India, the heroine’s coming of age in a southern gothic setting. Park tunes the viewers’ ears to the southern countryside, subverting its pastoral connotations to eerie disquiet. The atmospheric film highlights sounds and sights perceived only by huntsmen. Selectively listening and attuning as if you were both the predator and its prey. This sensual depiction of sound mimicked the complex and psychosexual tension underpinning India and Uncle Charlie’s relationship.
Final Thoughts and Persuasions
This is not the perfect film, and neither is the plot entirely unique and fresh. It is a re-imagination of a Hitchcock award winner and embeds dynamics inspired by the charming, human-presenting Count Dracula.
It is, however, intentional. A supernaturally acute level of intention from script to cinematography, from costume to set. Actors and everything else in between. Above all, the complex characters drown you in a perpetual moral dilemma. The viewer is never an outsider in this film. You will feel party to this family conflict – haunted by the spirit of each character. Also, it was written by Wentworth Miller, the guy from Prison Break. How spectacularly peculiar, isn’t it?
