Overview: In a 19th century village, a young girl is haunted by visions of local children, who soon turn up murdered.

Laurin is a quiet and precocious adolescent girl living in rural 1901 Germany. She voyeuristically observes the behavior of the self-absorbed grownups around her, all of them seemingly oblivious to the fact that this strange little girl is growing up alone.

While her father is away at sea, her mother’s violent death leaves Laurin effectively orphaned and unsupervised. Now, a murderer has begun targeting Laurin’s classmates, and Laurin has begun having terrifying hallucinations of the children.

The grownups are desperate to catch the killer, but they’re woefully ignorant of the dark, secret world right under their noses. An evil has surfaced in their seemingly idyllic village, deeply rooted in childhood traumas and long-buried secrets...and no child is safe.

Writer/director Robert Sigl’s ambitious and powerful debut shocked audiences on its initial release and never failed to spark controversy across Europe.

For the film’s 35th anniversary, Visual Vengeance proudly presents Laurin in its first-ever North American release - and Sigl’s moody, atmospheric Gothic thriller has lost none of its impact in the intervening years.

This director-approved special edition of the critically acclaimed film is loaded with extras, including archival materials from the director’s private vaults as well as new bonus features created exclusively for this release.

Blu-ray Verdict: The whole movie takes place in Hungary with an entire Hungarian cast. The director is German Robert Sigl and this was his first long movie. In a short documentary on the Blu-ray, it’s explained why he decided to film in Eastern Europe and not in Germany. Germany, at the time, was still very much divided between East and West and thus was for beginning directors too expensive to make a film.

Indeed, it was much cheaper in Eastern Europe (not that much later the Berlin Wall would eventually fall). Hungary had a location that fitted for the movie. Sigle opted to have the cast speak English to give it an international appeal. The movie never made it to the theatre and was shown as a miniseries on TV. Quite a pity as it would have looked great on the big screen. The documentary shows how the cast got pronunciation lessons and that surely helped. As for the kids in the movie, I think their voices might have been dubbed afterwards.

Laurin, a girl around the age of 10 with an incredible pretty face, has not many speaking lines though, as you would expect from the character bearing the movie title. But despite that it’s definitely her story as almost everything seems to happen through her eyes. And if she isn’t there to observe she has those dream sequences which reveal bit by bit the dark things happening in her village.

It’s those scenes that are the strong part of the movie together with Laurin wandering around in the village looking for clues to solve the mysterious disappearance of a boy her age and even more mysterious death of her own mother. She has a lonesome life living alone with her grandmother, her father being for months away at sea. Her best friend is the neighbor’s kid Stephen being overly protected by his mother (his father is dead) and usually the target of bullies at school. When the kids at school get a new teacher who resembles Laurin’s father things really starting to get interesting.

In short, I myself truly enjoyed the movie. Don’t expect anything scary nor creepy or even jump scares. The movie is more of a mystery than horror yet contains a few disturbing scenes for the eyes of a young child. Dóra Szinetár as Laurin together with the other cast members really pulled it off well. The ending I thought was really clever also. And so I would like to congratulate the writer for that and the director for having it put on screen so beautifully. The story takes place in the late 1800’s, the scenery and costumes fit perfectly well. Overall, this is a mighty solid flashback watch and one that I highly recommend. [J.W.]

Bonus Features:
Director-approved 2K HD transfer from the original 35mm film elements, complete and uncut, in both English- and German-language versions
Feature-length audio commentary by film historian Troy Howarth, author of Innocence Lost: Robert Sigl and the Curse of Laurin
Updated subtitle translations for the German version assisted by Robert Sigl
Original VHS rough cut of Laurin from Sigl’s private collection, featuring set-recorded audio allowing viewers to hear the actors’ real voices prior to overdubbing
Laurin c’est moi: New Interview with Director Robert Sigl (59 min.)
Two award-winning short films by Robert Sigl: The Christmas Tree (Der Weihnachtsbaum, 1983, 20 min.) and Coronoia 21: It Comes with the Snow (2021, 10 min.)
The Making of Laurin archival documentary
Interview with actor Dóra Szinetár
Interview with actor Barnabás Tóth
Interview with cinematographer Nyika Jancsó
Film historian Jonathan Rigby Interview
Optional German language audio track
Robert Sigl Bavarian Film Awards Presentation
8 photo galleries featuring never-before-seen images from Robert Sigl’s personal archives
Collectible folded mini-poster
Blu-ray sleeve featuring original home video art
6-page liner notes essay by Tony Strauss of Weng’s Chop magazine - FIRST PRESSING ONLY
Limited Edition mini-postcard set reproduced from German promotional materials - FIRST PRESSING ONLY
‘Stick your own’ VHS sticker sheet - FIRST PRESSING ONLY
Optional English Language Closed Captions
Limited Edition O-CARD by Justin Coons - FIRST PRESSING ONLY
Original Trailer
Visual Vengeance Trailers

LAURIN | Trailer (HD) | Robert Sigl (1989)

Official Purchase Link