Meet the Stoker family: wealthy, well-bred and seemingly isolated from the world. Mom Evie (Nicole Kidman) seems to have nothing more to do than weave elegantly around the house with a drink in her hand, looking fabulous. Dad Richard (Dermot Mulroney) is an architect who got his Ph.D at the age of 24. Daughter India (Mia Wasikowska) has just turned 18 and has an odd penchant for retro dresses and saddle shoes.

During the first two minutes, we discover that Dad has died: burned to cinders in an untimely car accident on the day of India's birthday. At the funeral, Mom is already flirting with the dazzlingly handsome Uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode), who apparently just turned up from Europe. "Richard never talked about you," drawls Mom to Charlie as he smiles evasively. The reasons for that become murderously clear as the story progresses.

"Stoker" is a precious and brilliant piece of storytelling, penned by "Prison Break" actor Wentworth Miller, who had been writing screenplays under the pseudonym Ted Foulke — Foulke being his dog's name — while continuing to work at his Hollywood day job. "Stoker" caught the eye of Ridley Scott and instead of taking the project to a big-name American director, Scott's production company got in touch with Korea's Park Chan Wook, of "Oldboy" fame. Speaking almost no English but displaying an extraordinary command over the material and an expertise in making viewers' skin crawl, Park never misses a step in exposing the festering raw wounds hidden just beneath the gauze-fragile surface of life in the Stoker household.