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[The Shrine]
Plot:A group of young journalists investigate a cult said to practice human sacrifice. But their ambitious ways may lead them to becoming the cult's next victims.

Cast:Trevor Matthews, Aaron Ashmore, Ben Lewis, Connor Stanhope, Paulino Nunes, Monica Bugajski.

My Thoughts:A somewhat new occult horror flick.

Review:"The Shrine", from filmmaker Jon Knautz...is a new breed of occult horror. The film tries to use some new tricks that other occult horror films have failed at using, or never tried to use at all. Most of it's success comes from it's ability to create very creepy and very tense moments. Most of it's failure's come from a sloppy finale to it's otherwise intriguing and dark story. The movie begins when a young backpacker vanishes in eastern Europe. Similar to "Hostel", this movie portrays Eastern Europe as a very strange, dark, and awkward place.

Where people are involved in all sorts of weird chicanery. The most of that is probably true, but who's counting really. At any rate, the disappearance of this young backpacker catches the eye of a female duo of young journalists. One of the girls goes to her boss and begs and pleads with him to let her cover the story of what happened to this kid. But her boss sees no sensationalism value in the story, so he assigns her a different story instead.

She then disobeys his orders, and heads to a village in Poland to investigate the disappearance of the young backpacker. With her, is the other female journalist/her best friend. And her boyfriend, who she is going through a rough patch with. She thinks by having him accompany her on this story, it will strengthen their relationship. And possibly heal any wounds they it might have. Of course, one would think that a couple going to a remote Polish village to look into a mysterious vanishing does not sound that romantic.

Or romantic at all for that matter. But hey, it's a horror movie so whatever. Once they arrive there, they find that the people who populate the village are quite strange, and they apparently have some sort of religion going on. There's also some people in the village who do not want the travelers there, and make many attempts to get them to leave. Of course they refuse, and continue their investigation. Something which proves very quickly to be, a grave mistake.

"The Shrine" works very early on because it sets up it's dark, spooky, and sometimes Scooby Doo'ish mystery very nicely. Thus, it sets up a nice payoff later on down the road. There's one set of scenes in particular where the trio of investigators, well...I guess we could call the boyfriend played by Aaron Ashmore a tag-along. But anyhow, they enter into the woods, and come upon a strange mist/fog like entity. The weird part about this fog is it doesn't move! It's literally still, as if it's a dimension or area or realm, off to itself.

The two women of course go in because, they need the story. And I'm sure there's some A-typical horror flick naivety, and stupidity involved as well. Once inside, it isn't long before they start hearing voices and noises. Voices which end up leading one of the girls to a creepy demonic-looking statue, which holds in it's stone hand...a beating heart. The statue is a pretty cool piece of work, and I have to give big kudos to the fx guys who created it. It's a very nasty, creepy, scary looking thing.

And it's presence is heightened by the fact that it's surrounded by this mysterious mist. Not much background is given on the statue, which is one of the big hurts on the movie. We're given this creepy-looking statue, but no explanation behind it, or why it exists. And how come it's buried in all of this mist. At any rate, after their investigation, the locals have decided that they've had enough, and come after the kids hard. And in typical villager/pitchfork and torch fashion. Thus their ordeal of terror really begins then.

"The Shrine" sinks little by little after displaying one of the creepiest scenes I've seen in quite some time in an indie horror picture. After this awesome set of scenes in the woods. The movie then becomes a weirdo/chase/cult movie. With not much explanation as to why what is happening is happening. The villagers want these kids. Obviously. But why? Do they want them dead? Or do they want them for a whole nother purpose? And how is all of this connected to that strange diety statue way back in the misty woods?
None of this is ever explained even a bit. But when you've seen enough occult horror films, where human/ritual sacrifice is involved. You can pretty much put 2 and 2 together about what's happening and why. Still, some backstory would've been nice. As for the trio of young nosing-around'ers. Well, they're actually tolerable characters. They don't curse a lot to sound cool, there's no over-abundance of crude language, or perverted sexual humor.

They're actually written as mature, young-adult characters. Very refreshing! And this also makes it all the more sad when they get captured by these kooks, and set up to be sacrificed in some sort of bizarre ceremony. One negative about the kids though, would be that age old horror movie naivety. The kids are easily hoodwinked, fooled, and tricked by some of the villagers. One in particular, into walking right into all sorts of traps. Granted, "The Shrine" is a decent horror flick.

But I really hate those moments when the kids in a strange far away land, take directions from the creepy locals. You just know it's an evil trick. And no matter how much you jump up and down for them not to fall for it. They always do. Sad. At any rate, the films third act hurts the movie in one facet, and boasts it in another. While the story takes a turn for the ugly, the grotesque, and the plain demonic...it doesn't offer up any explanation about any of these things.

But the ending is well filmed, well choreographed, has some spooky tense moments, and is bloody as hell! So in that regard, of giving genre fans what they want and love...it manages to clean up after some of it's story mistakes. All in all, by the time the film finishes up with it's strong finale, for the most part...it had a good run.

Exciting, suspenseful, gritty, and downright scary in other/some areas. But the period on the end of this sentence is a bit wobbly. There is finally, FINALLY...an explanation given to what the WTF is exactly going on in this strange village. But the explanation is flimsy at best, and kind of cheap at worst. Still though, "The Shrine" is a horror movie that genre fans should definitely check out.

Positives:Good acting, great directing, an interesting and dark story also. Some very striking and powerful scenes. Particularly involving the weird ass statue in the misty woods. And a powerful third act.

Negatives:Not enough background on the cult who lived in the village, their practices, why, and the statue which is seemingly shrouded in this mist that doesn't go too far beyond the statue itself. Just some very big holes that needed plugging in the story.

Overall:Three stars out of four.





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