Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
In the menacing inferno of the old North-American West, Liz is a genuine survivor who is hunted by a vengeful preacher for a crime she didn’t commit.
Brimstone is a visually arresting and brutally intense neo-Western that leans heavily on its strong performances, particularly Guy Pearce's terrifyingly magnetic turn as the Reverend and Dakota Fanning's resilient protagonist. The cinematography by Martijn van Broekhuizen is striking, drenched in harsh frontier light and oppressive shadow that amplifies the film's hellish atmosphere. However, the non-linear four-chapter structure, while initially intriguing, struggles under the weight of its relentless grimness — the cumulative brutality begins to feel exploitative rather than purposeful. The ending, attempting a kind of bleak catharsis, lands with diminishing emotional returns after such a punishing runtime, feeling somewhat deflating rather than genuinely earned. Novelty is moderate; the film blends religious fanaticism with frontier Western trappings in a distinctive way, but the revenge-survival framework is familiar enough to keep it from feeling truly singular.