“Pray for the best, prepare for the worst.”

Not going to lie, a big reason I rewatched this was to see if I preferred this or Dune: Part Two as my favorite movie of Denis Villeneuve’s (see my Letterboxd ranking to find out). So far, both times I’ve gone back to revisit this film I’ve worried that it wouldn’t hold up as well. Both times I’ve been proven sorely wrong. As of right now, I’ve only ever given three movies a perfect rating, and two of them have been directed by Denis Villeneuve. Maybe I just need to see more movies, who knows, but the fact that two of his films I’ve given a 10/10 is definitely saying something, and I haven’t even seen Incendies yet. But anyways, onto the actual review.

Even just recently starting my “journey” going through all-time greats, I have a hard time seeing many movies being as good as Prisoners when it comes to the mystery-thriller genre. It’s just perfect in every aspect of filmmaking. I’ll delve into the other aspects later, but when it comes to being a mystery-thriller, it’s simply a tense ride from start to finish, and this stands true even on rewatch. Even after knowing everything that happens, which is truly something for a mystery film. There’s not a scene that isn’t fully embodied in the tone of the film (at least once the premise kicks in, which is very early on), and doesn’t feel either terrifying or intense.

What makes this film so terrifying is how grounded it is in a real-world sense. Obviously, there are some things that the police and detectives would definitely find out nowadays, but there was a time where this story, or at least something like this, could have happened. Even with today’s security, news, and all, it’s still terrifying because of the way the story is told and how it affects the characters. The progression you see in the parents, especially Hugh Jackman, is real and understandable. How they go from sane to insane, and how they start to push away their morals to find their daughters feels natural and human.

This leads to my next topic on the movie – how it handles faith. I’m not sure if Denis Villeneuve has a faith of his own or not, but I think this movie is a great film for people to analyze how some people thought faithful before, can turn into their own type of monster when they come across a tragic event in their life that makes them lose hope in God. Faith is the biggest thing in my life, and so I think that’s part of the reason why I love this film so much. It asks the question of how strong your faith truly is, and I even see this film being pretty convicting for some people.

I just mentioned this in my review for Get Out, but the thing that truly makes a mystery movie great is how rewatchable it is. Obviously on first viewing, the movie is likely to feel either surprising or rewarding, but whether it holds your attention the same way on rewatch depends really on how good of a story it is. Like Get Out, Prisoners holds up on rewatch. Obviously, you can only be surprised by the twists and turns in a movie once (unless you wait a really long time to watch it again and forget I guess), but the impact that all of the twists and turns have hit with the exact same effect for Prisoners on every single watch. I still get that awestruck feeling at all the big moments, even on my third viewing. What also helps this is how intense and well-paced it is. Once it gets going, it doesn’t stop. Every five or ten minutes there is guaranteed to be some sort of dramatic and big reveal that keeps your heart racing the whole run-time.

Now Roger Deakins did the cinematography for this movie, so of course every single shot is incredible. Denis Villeneuve and Deakins did a fantastic job with the camera work to make every scene as impactful as possible. I’m a huge fan of the color grading too. It was a perfect choice to make the movie look as cold and gray as it did because that’s what was going on both within the story and within the characters. It adds a dramatic, hopeless, and depressing feel to it, just like any normal person would feel being in the situation that the characters here are in.

It’s also cool just seeing on rewatch some of the details given that hinted at all the revelations in the story. Another thing that makes a great mystery is a movie that foreshadows things in a way that you don’t really catch them the first time but clearly see them when revisiting them. I was surprised by pretty much all the big reveals the first time I watched Prisoners and feel kind of dumb after having rewatched it twice because some of the stuff really was just writing on the wall.