The Necromancer - Das Böse in dir

I must admit that I was instantly lured in by the title of the movie, I mean, "The Necromancer", it just doesn't get much more ominous than that. And being an avid horror fan, of course I sat down for watching this 2018 movie from writer and director Stuart Brennan.

While I did manage to sit through the entire ordeal that is "The Necromancer", I can in all honesty say that I wasn't particularly entertained, much less impressed with what transpired on the screen. And why is that?

Well, first of all, the movie is slow paced with very little of any great interest happening throughout the course of the entire movie. This was essentially just watching a group of grown men dressed up in old uniforms and do cosplay in the great forest, accompanied by some questionable camerawork.

Sure, I will say that the props and costumes were quite good, and that really worked in favor of the movie, and the production level was good as well, but this was hardly enough to make up for a total lack of an adequately entertaining storyline and script.

The acting in the movie was dubious, so you shouldn't get your expectations up for experiencing anything grand or Shakespearian here. But then again, the actors and actresses literally had nothing to work with from the script.

As for the characters, well they were flaccid and rather faceless. You don't really form any bond with any of them, and you just watch the torment inflicted upon them, shrug and move on, waiting for the next one to be targeted by the sinister force in the forest.

Then when the necromancer was finally revealed towards the end of the movie, you just stare in disbelief and go 'seriously? They opted for that?'. It was such an anti-climatic reveal that didn't work out well for the movie, which was already struggling with a losing uphill battle.

While the intentions behind "The Necromancer" were good and interesting, the movie just didn't translate well from script to screen, and this is not a movie that I would recommend you spend your time, money or effort on. Some of us did, and suffered through it, so you don't have to.

My rating of "The Necromancer" is a mere three out of ten stars.

This is the cinematic equivalent of self harm (or overly dramatic munching on pinecones - spoiler) Horrendously bad, but at least it's inspired some of the most disingenuous and laughable reviews written by the cast and their friends.

If you want an insight into delusion, watch it and then read the reviews.

This was a potentially interesting movie. The acting is generally fairly good in spite of some horrible dialog the actors had to unnaturally stuff into the scenes. The special effects were pretty poor. The battle scenes had potential, but the low budget forced them to skimp on a critical plot element. Once in the forest the movie takes a serious nose dive. Instead of horror you get boredom. There are also some big flaws such as self reloading muskets that just pull you right out of suspension of disbelief. A remake that spent time on the horrors Napoleonic soldiers faced. Then redid the entire forest element and made it actually scary and you have a really good movie. I'm sure the lack of money is responsible for a lot of the ills of this movie. Some were just bad dialog and unlikable characters. I suggest a pass on this movie unless you are looking for inspiration for an interesting plot to remake.

Never normally bother writing an actual review but I feel it is my duty to warn others how absolutely awful this film was. Anyone who claims a film other than this is the worst of all time hasn't seen this. Lacks any sense of direction, often makes no sense, half the film is fuzzy out of focus twigs although that is better than the horrific acting the only scary thing about this film was that someone actually signed this film off as more than a failed gcse project

The premise in itself is interesting. The script, the utterly insipid, simplistic dialogues and the amateurish acting (on a level with that of a not-so-brilliant high school troupe), paired with special effects clearly inspired by Pan's Labyrinth (albeit the version you'd expect elementary school children to make for themselves for Halloween) soon make it hard to keep a straight face.

Add to that a complete disregard for period detail and wigs so visibly artificial that you expect a label sticking out of them saying '100% polyester' and you wouldn't be surprised if one of the characters were to check his messages on an Apple Watch on screen.

Makes you wonder what the jury's standards are at the Bristol Festival. The real horror is thinking about what the other films presented will have been like if this is the winner.