This Geek In Netflix: The Shrine
After last week’s review of Thankskilling, I thought I had been put off movies for life. Who wants to possibly risk their sanity reviewing movies that may or may not contain an evil, ass-raping turkey puppet?
But I steeled myself and dug through Netflix once more, considering seppuku as a possible option should I find myself witnessing another feathery debacle. (Ever think that you’d see the phrase “feathery debacle” in a movie review? Probably not. And you’re welcome.)
Fortunately, I found another IFC release that enabled me to get through at least one more week of reviewing.
The Shrine is a lovely little horror movie produced by Brookstreet Pictures Production that was screened last year (2010 for those of you bad at math… or happen to be time-travelers) at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal.
It has two actors in it that you may or may not recognize, one Mr. Aaron Ashmore (Steve Jinks from Warehouse 13, Jimmy Olsen from Smallville, AND two bit parts in Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark? (whoo!)) and one Ms. Cindy Sampson (Lisa Braeden from Supernatural), as well as the gorgeous Meghan Heffern who has not done much (yet), but I highly recommend you Googling as she’s definitely going to do more.
I’m going to warn you now, the plot I am about to recount sounds like every other horror movie of this type (TITGTASBCIIA: Tourists In Trouble Get Tortured And Sacrificed By Cult In Isolated Area) and, yes, it does feel like that for the majority of the film. HOWEVER, it ends up being awesome.
Awesomely hot.
Carmen (Sampson) is a journalist who, after making a bad decision in publishing a controversial article, finds herself desperately in need of a good story to redeem herself to the newspaper she works for.
After discovering news of a tourist that has gone missing in Poland, she does some research and finds that a series of tourists have gone missing in the same area. She tracks down the missing man’s mother, coldly goes through his returned luggage, and discovers a journal with a last entry focusing on the remote (and fictional) town of Alvania.
She convinces her photographer boyfriend, Marcus (Ashmore), to come to Poland with her and intern Sara (Heffern) to attempt to track down information on the missing man and save her career.
Suddenly driving through Poland, Carmen reads the last entry in the missing man’s journal: an account of the town of Alvania (where we learn the people are unwelcoming and the town is self-sustaining) and mention of a weird hovering dark fog over part of the forest that surrounds the town.
She made an odd garden gnome, but the neighbors loved her.
Marcus makes jokes about the missing man’s hallucinogen intake but, as they start walking through the town, the jokes stop when he sees the dark fog the man had written of. They wander for a little, getting odd looks from the natives, and are eventually chased out by some of the tougher looking locals.
As they drive out of town, Carmen informs Marcus that they have to go back as her boss told her to work on another story and she and Sara are in Poland without managerial consent– so they will both get fired upon their return.
This, to me, seems like a value issue: hang out with crazy locals in a country whose language you don’t speak in a town known for missing people ooooor go home and lose a job you’re not too fond of anyway.
Marcus, however, is convinced– though he is none too happy, and they pull over onto the side of the road in order to enter the forest with the heavy fog over it from the opposite side.
Then Sara and Carmen go into the fog. Separately.
This movie is chock full (etiology of the phrase “chock full” anyone?) of moments where you have to fight to restrain yourself from screaming, “What are you doing? Why are you going in there? WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU THINKING?! GODDAMMIT!!” I tried to convince myself that anyone stupid enough to do the things that they did deserved their fate, but I still had to constantly fight the urge to shout at the movie.
Macaulay Culkin has nothing on this kid.
This movie, screaming aside, wins three points with me.
1. The Polish dialogue is not subtitled. This is great, as it includes the viewer in on the experience of not knowing what is going on, just as the American characters do not. It’s a great level of realism AND it promotes the fear of The Other– it keeps the anatagonist not quite human.
2. The plot is, from what I’ve seen, pretty original. The ending was unexpected in the way of having a carpet pulled out from under your feet. I don’t want to say more because it would ruin the fun for any of you who may watch it.
3. The maintenance of tension was great, though it did not pervade the entire movie. There were definitely unexpected moments that sent me bolting upright, hanging on the edge of my seat as the movie progressed.
However, there were three things that I did not care for.
1. Parts of this movie looked like they were shot by the SyFy Channel, and the CGI fog was horrible. Yes, SyFy horrible.
See? SyFy horrible.
2. The female lead, Carmen, was so unsympathetic that I found myself hoping for her death. She’s supposed to be a go-getter, at least at the beginning of the movie, but she ends up coming off as a bitch– and normally I love the go-getter types. This wasn’t a matter of dialogue, but of acting.
3. The ending of the movie, which is so great, is the only part of it that really breaks out from the typical hostage/cult movie. The pacing was slow and awkward at times, and I know that if I had not had to watch the entire movie for the review, I would likely have turned it off about thirty minutes in and picked another movie– which would have meant that I never would have seen the ending that truly makes the film.
4. Sara, the beautiful, attention-grabbing intern, had next to no dialogue. Her character was there to serve a purpose (which she did), but the screen writer (or editor) did not allow the movie a chance to develop her character *at all*. The character could have been replaced by a dog to have the same amount of interaction she was afforded. Fortunately, Heffern was able to carry this character as well as possible given the circumstances.
Ah, Sara, we knew you for so short a time.
This movie, while good, could have been much, much more. Do I suggest watching it? Yes, if you have the free time and don’t mind wading through fifty or so minutes of plot that could have been executed better to get to the meat of the story. There are definitely better movies out right now, ones that I would suggest over this one.
However, if you’re willing to take the time to watch it all the way through, it does become truly excellent. Besides, it’s free on Netflix on Demand– take an evening and enjoy.
