Something has to bear the banner of “bloodiest thing I saw at TIFF” and I’d wager that Brimstone bears it proudly, has indeed gone to great lengths to earn it.
Dakota Fanning plays a mute woman newly married, raising a dead woman’s son and a daughter of her own. She is unable to speak but the look of dread on her face when she hears the new preacher’s voice tells us all we need to know. That preacher (Guy Pearce) has been stalking her for years, and bathing villages in blood as he attempts to make her his.
Their story unravels backwards – chapter one sets the above scene; chapter two rewinds to her childhood in a religious-pioneer settlement when her mother was the object of his cruel “affections”; chapter three follows her to a saloon where she does what she must in order to escape; chapter four has him caught up to her, and to her kids, as she flees through snowy, barren land.
Guy Pearce is diabolical – the extent of his character’s actual super-naturalness is unclear, or up for debate, but he’s a twisted zealot AT BEST and I’ll let you decide if there’s more to it. Dakota Fanning as Liz is necessarily quiet but full of strength and grit. He comes at her hard with vengeance but she’s a surprisingly formidable opponent.
This is Martin Koolhoven’s first English-language movie and he’s determined to show us what he’s made of. And for the record: blood and guts. He’s made of blood and guts. So am I, I 
suppose, but I’ve never worn my intestines as a scarf. Have you?
The images are powerful, and will burrow under your skin. And there are 148 bloody minutes of them. It’s not all gore though, there’s plenty of foreboding, plenty of tension. The setting does a lot to add to it: isolation is nobody’s friend. The land is unforgiving.
The MPAA warns of brutal bloody violence, strong sexual content including disturbing behavior, graphic nudity, and language. That doesn’t really tell a story though, does it? And it certainly doesn’t account for how thoroughly you’ll scour yourself in the shower after watching it. There’s no label for that. Except maybe “A film by Martin Koolhoven.”
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
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Dakota Fanning & Martin Koolhoven introduce the movie
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Koolhoven on writing the moving himself.
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Dakota Fanning seems to be on a roll at TIFF. You sold me at blood and guts. There’s a few Game of Thrones actors in this too so that helps.
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Yeah, last year we saw Elle, this year it was all Dakota!
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Dakota Fanning on the challenge of portraying a mute character.
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Koolhoven on receiving an R rating.
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Dakota Fanning & Koolhoven on child actors in graphic scenes.
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Dakota Fanning on portraying a mother at the age of 22.
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To be honest, this question pissed me off.
No one would question if a man could play a father regardless of if he was one in real life.
An actor’s job is to pretend.
I’m pretty sure she’s also never been a mute midwife pioneer prostitute either, but no one questioned her ability to play that.
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Dakota Fanning on not letting scenes take an emotional toll on her.
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On influences in the film.
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Well this just sounds brilliant!
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But does it have a happy ending????
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Um.
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haha that’s it then, I’m out 😀
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Wow, that sounds really intense! I love Guy Pearce in just about anything. The news today of Curtis Hanson passing makes me think of the first film I saw him in — LA Confidential, also my first glimpse of Russell Crowe.
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Yes, good memory. Sorry to have lost him.
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Sounds very kool I’ll keep it on the list
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Can’t wait for this one!!
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I’m really keen to see this one… sounds like a right jolly!
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This sounds like an excellent film even if it’s bloody. Knowing Dakota Fanning on the screen since she was a little girl, makes me feel uneasy if we see her In Full nudity
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Gruesome I can do under the right conditions. But this sounds like something my mother would like. She has interesting taste.
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