Brimstone ★★★★

WESTERN Brimstone is a brutal and unflinching tale of revenge fuelled by immoral lust and religious fervour.

The 2016 release features a compelling performance from Guy Pearce who adds to his incredibly versatile resume with one of the vilest screen villains for some years.

As The Reverend, Pearce starts as a fire and brimstone preacher who doesn’t seem to care if his entire flock ends up burning in hell and gradually reveals himself to be an even worse character by the final act.

As you can tell, it’s unrelentingly grim and the visceral approach has caused some critics to label it ‘repugnant’ and of little merit.

I disagree completely. Yes, ultimately it is a violence-soaked revenge thriller, but it’s also a damned good one with moments of film-making that attract comparisons to sequences of films like The Shining and Cape Fear.

The film is divided into four chapters, titled Revelation, Exodus, Genesis and Retribution, through which Dutch writer/director Martin Koolhoven plays with the timeline and narrative structure.

Revelation introduces us to Dakota Fanning’s character Liz, a young mute woman who works as the mid-wife for a small settlement. She is married and has a young daughter who knows sign language and acts as her assistant and voice at the births.

A new preacher arrives at their local church and Liz has an immediate emotional reaction to seeing him. The Reverend is deliberate and commanding in his speech and movements. He has large scars across his throat and one eye and a threatening demeanour.

A birth attended by Liz is going wrong. Her daughter tells the woman’s mother that she must decide whether to save the mother or child. She cannot decide so Liz makes the decision for her, causing anger not just in that family but the community generally.

The anger is fuelled by the Reverend’s reaction which suggests he is angered because in his view Liz chose to take the place of God in deciding who lived and who died.

A showdown at the end of the first chapter reveals deeper and more personal reasons for the Reverend’s anger towards Liz and her fleeing into the night.

The next two chapters are entirely flashbacks to Liz’s earlier life while the final chapter returns to the present.

Along the way there is much death, always brutal and without dignity. But there is also beauty in the photography, lighting and editing. For example the combinations or colours and hues combined with use of natural light seem to match the tone of scenes.

While Fanning and Pearce are the stand-outs, there isn’t a bad performance from any of the cast, including Game of Thrones’ Kit Harington and Carice van Houten. Particularly good is 15-year-old Emilia Jones who plays Joanna in the flashback sequences and is involved in some of the film’s most confronting scenes.

Koolhoven has not made many films and this is his first in eight years. His cinematographer Rogier Stoffers is more experienced but this is undoubtedly his best work to date.

But ultimately it is Pearce’s Reverend that will be remembered most. It’s a great addition to his myriad of performances in films like The Rover, The King’s Speech, Lockout, Animal Kingdom, The Road, The Hurt Locker, The Proposition, LA Confidential and, of course, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert back in 1994.