What if a talented director puts on a mystic with a good budget? The answer can be found in the Ninth Gate. Mysticism is by definition a budget genre. It was born with horror in times of economic depression as a way to shoot entertainment cheaply. Therefore, staging and budget in mysticism are secondary. The main thing is the atmosphere. In "The Ninth Gate," the production is on top. For mysticism, even a little lack of tension. The focus shifts to puzzles. But the action unfolds according to all the canons of high-quality drama, and the picture is well designed and richly furnished. Nice to see.
But what's beyond that? We are not told to believe in the devil seriously. So there is an alienation from history. We see the transformation of the character of a bad guy into a very bad guy. But in the history of mysticism, this is not particularly noticeable. It’s nice to watch the movie, but nothing more. It was probably an attempt to make a box-office entertainment film that didn’t have any extra meaning.