I am generally pleased with the After Dark Horrorfest movies, and this one is no exception. What do you get when you throw a rash of apparently linked suicides, serial demonic possession and a creepy little over-the-top christian fundamentalist town? A unique little horror flick, that's what! I can't say that I didn't ultimately see the ending coming, but at least it was a fun little trip to get there. Some movies follow a tired formula and can't break out of it, making them tired and boring. This one dances around a pretty common formula, but while it kept the path in sight, there can be plenty of unique adventure in the dark undergrowths along the way.
The only... complaint(?) I have about this film is the heavy handed treatment of the christian fundamentalist aspect of this film. To be honest, I don't know that it was truly central to the film enough to make it an issue. Yes, it played an important element in the back story, but that could have been covered by any number of excuses that would have been better carried forward into this film. There was just something about the treatment of that element that rang a little hollow and I wish that it had either been explored more completely or just dropped altogether. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm all for bashing over-the-top religious extremism and find it no small irony that "peaceful" religions spew more bile and hatred than the nastiest of fascist regimes. But pointing a lazy finger at them just feels like scapegoating, and that's just lame. Hypocritically calling out hypocrites just throws more fuel into the fire of 'stupid.'
But anyway, a fun film. Predictable, but fun.
Movie to Skip: Valhalla Rising
While I'm rating this film a little higher than most films that I encourage folks to skip, I'm pretty sure that this one was over-hyped and over-worked. Not to put too fine a point on things, this film reaches a new level of brutality in its sheer lack of humanity. There is not much dialogue, and what little dialogue there is seems to be a collection of justifications for the "civilized" folk to commit murder -- or to be murdered, as the case may be. In fact it is the lack of dialogue, and the unimportance attributed to what the characters actually say that makes this film feel so violent. This isn't a movie about human connection or emotional bonding. It is, for all intents and purposes, a movie about ritual murder. I think the box cover of this one (as well as the opening sequence) says this movie is about man's relationship to nature -- or rather that beastly element of man. But I get a sense that it is really less about the beast and more about the elemental nature of violence. No matter what station of the actors in this film (criminal, slave, clan leader, crusader, etc.) or what their motivation (survival, hatred, religion, etc.) everything boils down to violence. In this movie, violence takes on a very visceral and literal interpretation. But I think the film maker is trying to say that even in a modern setting, and using different "tools", we are all committing and avoiding acts of violence every day. It's kind of a depressing view of humanity, to be honest, and this movie captures that moody darkness quite well.
I didn't like this film, but I didn't dislike it either. On the other hand, I can't say I'm truly ambivalent about it. I guess I'm just not sure just how I feel about this one. I think I get the right message, but maybe I'm just having too hard a time buying into the message to appreciate the way it was delivered. Or, maybe this film suffers from the same kind of self-important undertone that killed the later Matrix movies... If you've got some time to spare, you might want to watch this one if for no other reason than it's 'different.' On the other and, if you're not well rested, it might put you to sleep (it may be violent, but there are long periods of Apocalypse Now-esque travel sequences that can be a bit much). This is an interesting movie, but it's a hard one to love.
