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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | A legend. One of the oldest legends of the Temple District. The Alchemist is a killer and a scientist. The residents believe all the unsolved murders are his doing. Some say he has no face, others say he has many. Still others say, whoever looks into his mask, loses their soul. | „ |
| ~ Tauzet reading about The Alchemist. |
Étienne Boisset, also known as The Alchemist (French: l' Alchimiste) is the main antagonist of the 2001 fantasy-mystery film Vidocq (also known as Dark Portals: The Chronicles of Vidocq), based in the memoirs of the actual historical figure.
He is a centennial being that found the key of eternal youth by collecting the souls of the innocent people he killed, using a glass mask developed from the blood of virgin girls. He managed to maintain this lifestyle until the reign of Charles X of France, where his recent killings are being investigated by Eugène Vidocq, who is determined to hunt down the urban legend at all costs.
He was portrayed by Guillaume Canet.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- Killed many young virginal girls across the centuries just to harvest their blood. These girls were either kidnapped or bought from poor families. They would end up stripped naked, hanged from the ceiling and exsanguinated.
- While the movie doesn't show this directly, it does show many bodies hanging across Étienne's lab and artificial wombs harvesting the blood (that also pours from the walls), giving enough screen impact to not count as off-screen villainy.
- The blood would then be used to create a glass mask. This mask is actually a power catalyst. If a person is killed while watching the mask, it traps its soul inside it. It is hardly implied by local legends that Étienne killed many people across his lifespan and collected their souls to maintain his youth.
- It is actually shown what the souls see inside the mask, and while they are not actively tortured, they still exist in constant distress due to the eternal imprisonment. When a soul is seen reflected in the mask, it is always with a horrid angst expression.
- Lured a trio of men desperate to maintain their youth and coherced them to collect virgin girls for him, in exchange for a ''potion of eternal youth''. Once they stopped working for him as he was not delivering the promised item, he killed them one by one in revenge.
- It is to be noted that many characters do mention a ''potion of eternal youth'', but considering the actual key for eternal youth is the mask, it is strongly implied that Étienne lied since the start. The fact that he never made the item further confirms this.
- After he ''kills'' Vidocq, his archenemy (who was actually faking his death), Étienne takes advantage of the situation and creates a fake persona of a journalist, in order to investigate Vidocq's leads about him and kill every witness that knew too much about his identity. He also imprisons their souls after killing them.
- Despite being defeated and prived from his mask (and collection of souls), he is still alive by the end of the film and possess a direct threat to Vidocq and associates. Since a continuation was never made, Étienne ends up as a karma houdini.
