Absolute Horror Film Forum

Well, the first thing that drew me to this film was the title, which about says it all. Though, I know, horror films that usually have great titles fail to deliver the goods, so it was with a little trepidation that I started watching the movie, and immediately felt my heart sink.

It opens with a group of women, dressed in monks robes reciting a spell - not too bad, you say - especially when the sackcloth comes off. It's the computer generated effects that spoiled it for me. Because the director used digital to film with, the effects look fake. I was sorely tempted to hit the stop button, as I'd gone through a bout of bad movies (and I used to love bad movies - now they're really bad). Luckily though, I stayed with it and after the opening credits things started to pick up, and carried on rising throughout the film to it's climax.

We jump into the future to see a woman talking to her husband on the phone, while she listens to some strange noises in the house and a lightning storm crashes outside. With some curiosity, she goes to check on her daughter, who is asleep in bed. After taking herself to bed for a while and bad dreams, she gets up and wanders through the dark house. As the lightening strikes you see the outline of the "She-daemon" imposed on her in the bright flashes, and you know something isn't right. This time when she checks on her daughter she finds her sliced in two. The mother then, in-turn, ends up impaled on a coat-hanger at the bottom of the stairs (now this is the real way to start a horror movie).

We then jump forward again to a group of college students trying to make a little bit of cash buy working as a cleaning crew. It is their job to titivate the old out-of-town property for a nasty real estate agent and his attractive, female, brown-nosing assistant - who stay with the crew to keep an eye on them.

It's a little slow to begin with as the director introduces you to each character, which I think's a good thing, as the acting is way above par for an indie-horror. My favourite is the non-stereotypical, stereotypical jock. Who blusters around with macho-bravado, but isn't scared to admit that he's "Sh*t scared" even when the others are "acting brave"

While cleaning out the cellar they find a book of incantations that will allow a "She-daemon" to arise and wreak havoc on the Earth - and after seeing the daemon in her human form every red-blooded male will be be shouting "Pass me the book, let me read." Of course, they are lucky enough to have a philosophy major drop-out that can translate the book and as he does so, each of his friends / workers kicks the bucket - in a nasty way. This continues until the last right of passage where the "She-daemon" is reborn. Of course this is intercourse; and at the very exact moment that the text is being read from the book; and our "clever" teens realise all they have to do to save the world is remain celibate until they leave the house; the jock and the dumb blonde are bumping uglies upstairs. After this the dead begin to rise. If it doesn't rain it pours I'll leave the ending a surprise - though it probably wont be, just because this is a film that pokes the fun at, and relies upon, cliches.

One of the best deaths, for me, was the coke-head being pulled / folded into the ground in the cellar - very nice breaking bones and vomited intestines.

I think the reason that most of the deaths work is because the director decided against over-the-top CGI and went old school to keep the "Wet look" to the gore.

But it isn't just the horror, or the gore, or the boobs that made this a good film for me, it was the comedy also - I think that Jay Lee (director / writer / editor / toilet attendant / odd-job-man) did a good job in taking every stereotypical horror teenager and twisting them enough to allow us to laugh at them - where most films would try to make us think of them as normal.

Then there's the whole genre within a genre thing. The film starts out as a "Witch" movie, that turns into a "Haunted House" movie and progresses into a "Zombie" flick.

I wont say it's a great film, but I did enjoy the hell out of it - and for a cheap indie flick, it's one of the better ones.

Hope you give it a try, and I hope you become a fan too.

8/10


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PENNYWISE.