In keeping with its focus on a Protestant congregation in the Old West, Brimstone is a dark and soberly directed drama that almost serves as an antidote to Quentin Tarantino's playful recent revistations of the genre, even though neither The Hateful 8 director nor the Netherlands' Martin Koolhoven shy away from sustained on-screen violence.

The story centers on a thundering reverend (Guy Pearce at his most ominous) who terrorizes a young, mute midwife (Dakota Fanning) and explores the-often terrible-treatment of women against the backdrop of a small religious community of Dutch immigrants in the West, both rarely explored in Westerns.

Even in terms of its storytelling, Brimstone is an atypical film, told in four parts with the first three arranged in reverse-chronological order, allowing audiences to tumble back into the characters' past to slowly reveal the sources of their circumstances and behavior. Gorgeously shot and with small but crucial supporting roles from Game of Thrones stars Carice van Houten and Kit Harington, this is unlike any Western you've ever seen.