In a seaside 19th Century German Village, young Laurin’s (Dóra Szinetár) pappy, Arne (János Derzsi) is shipping out for another long sojourn at sea leaving our heroine with her mother, Flora (Brigitte Karner) and grandmother, Olga (Hédi Temessy).
Meanwhile, a sinister cloaked figure stalks the fog-shrouded nights, putting a murder on the local child populace.
One such murder is witnessed by Flora, and she ends up six feet under right quick!
But has time passes, it becomes ever-more apparent that Laurin can seemingly receive visions from her mother from beyond the grave… visions of not only the face and corpse of her mother herself, but ominous portents such as a black dog and obsidian kite… but will she be able to identify the psycho terrorizing the village?!!
Coming from Director Robert Sigl (who also co-wrote the picture along with Ádám Rozgonyi), Laurin is an atmospheric journey into a surreal, and at times sinister, world.
While at it’s heart, the film is a suspenseful thriller, but with it’s incredible Hungarian architecture and landscapes the film takes on a heavy fairy tale vibe as well.
Of course the fact that the children are the ones going through the ordeal, with not a whole lot of adult supervision, adds to that aesthetic as well… and as the mystery unfolds, things additionally dive into Gothic thriller and folk horror territory quite often… hell we even get some eerie scenes accented by color gels that would do Dario Argento proud!
Adding to the experience are the ambiguous motives of the menacing madman at hand (though glimpses show us dark clues), an extremely suspenseful and lightly supernatural finale, and a suitably odd electronic score from composers Hans Jansen and Jacques Zwart.
You’ll doubtless have questions after viewing Laurin, and a good source of some answers comes from the audio commentary featuring fright flick historian/author Troy Howarth, that takes us through the film’s themes and production in informative and listenable fashion!
Since we’re talkin’ extras, we next get a lengthy interview with Sigl (who provides us with a deluge of first hand details of Laurin’s creation), as well as interviews with cinematographer Nyika Jancsó, actor Dóra Szinetár, actor Barnabás Tóth, and film historian Jonathan Rigby (who provides a fascinating scholarly analysis of the film).
After those conversations, bonus materials continue on with the option of viewing the picture featuring it’s original German language track, a VHS rough cut of Laurin (a considerably longer version sourced from Sigl’s private archives which features set-recorded audio of the Hungarian actors speaking their lines in English… a really cool addition), The Bavarian Film Awards presentation to Sigl, a short, archival “making of” piece, and a duo of award winning Sigl shorts; 1983’s The Christmas Tree (Der Weihnachtsbaum), and 2021’s Coronoia 21…both unique, both interesting… but I have to tell your arcane asses, ol’ Der Weihnachtsbaum is a yuletide yarn that is an expressionist fever dream of a hellish hallucinatory holiday, so that one is an absolute must in my beastly book!
Rounding things out are 8 photo galleries featuring never-before-seen images from those aforementioned archives (four focusing on Laurin, two on Der Weihnachtsbaum, one on a lost short film called Die Hutte, and one on the awards mentioned up yonder), and a duo of trailers (the original theatrical number and Visual Vengeance version respectively).
The package includes a folded mini-poster, a slip-sleeve featuring Laurin’s original home video art, and if you act fast and grab a first pressing you’ll get 6-page liner notes essay courtesy of Tony Strauss of Weng’s Chop magazine, a mini-postcard set (reproduced from German promotional materials), and a retro VHS rental store sticker-sheet!
Also, while Visual Vengeance are primarily known for their S.O.V. horror releases, Laurin boasts a Sigl approved 2K HD transfer from the original 35mm film elements!
An oft-disturbing dark fairy tale, Laurin is a psychotronic Gothic nightmare masterpiece!
