David Lombroso

People always said there was a demon in the woods at Camp Catskill. No one’s been up there in years, not since a boy was found dead one summer in the early 2000s. When a group of old camp friends receive a mysterious invitation to a reunion on the long-shuttered grounds, their visit awakens an ancient evil with a thirst for Jewish blood.

“Molek” is a feature film that works as an allegory for antisemitism; an effort to upend bigotry through satire, a propensity for which horror films are especially suited (i.e. “Get Out”). By centering the plot around a group of twenty-somethings at a summer camp reunion, the film is grounded in nostalgia and innocence before shifting to fear, confusion, and terror.

Molek is a Canaanite god to whom followers in antiquity were said to offer child sacrifices. By linking this mythological character to a through-line of historic antisemitism – and shifting his thirst from children to Jews – the film creates a new myth, one in which behind every antisemitic act lies the seductive call of a bloodthirsty demon.