The Shrine

The action of Canadian horror flick "The Shrine" takes place in a small Polish village of Kozki,where several young Americans vanished without a trace.The story of various disappearances is the main interest of Carmen,a young fame and money-hungry journalist.She and her assistant Sara and her photographer boyfriend Marcus travel to Poland to solve the mystery.The locals in Kozki are not friendly and there is an esoteric cult which practices blood sacrifices and has leaders shouting litanies in laughably bad Polish.The portrayal of Polish villagers in "The Shrine" is obnoxious and downright silly,but being Polish I had a total blast watching this crappy horror extravaganza.The story owes a lot to Robin Hardy's "The Wicker Man" and mushroom trip like visions of demonic faces are quite creepy.The soundtrack is minimalistic and there is a bit of great gore.7 angry Poles out of 10.

Yes, the script is kinda cheesy. Yes, the actors are blandly pretty. Yes, the characters do annoyingly dumb things in the woods. But there are some pretty decent aspects to "The Shrine" that make it worth the 90-odd minutes out of your life time to watch it.

First of all, it's not as entirely stupid as 99.9999% of horror movies currently in release. Early on there are some sequences which are, though derivative of J-horror, at least nicely scary. There's a very well done mid-movie change up and an ending that actually doesn't make you want to throw up your hands in disgust.

Faint praise, I know. But compared to the brain dead gore porn masquerading as horror films these days, this film's attempt to generate some real scares seems almost revolutionary by comparison. "The Shrine" is, at the very least, a pretty fair port in a storm of Hollywood crap.

The Shrine has a very intriguing story, with some great twists, but the acting in this movie was less than decent. 5/10

The story of The Shrine is not completely new, but it was different from most recent horror movies. The plot can be predictable here and there, but overall it is very refreshing and will keep you exciting for whats coming next.

Unfortunately this movie really proved that bad acting can ruin a good movie experience. I believe that with a few tweaks and a complete recasting this movie could have been amazing, but quite frankly it felt like Aaron Ashmore was the only actor in this movie who managed to deliver a half believable performance. Most of the dialog was stale and generally just felt like they were rehearsing their lines for the first time.

On another note, the pace of this movie was very satisfying throughout most of it. the beginning felt pretty slow, but honestly it would not have been a problem if the main characters had been more likable and properly portrayed. As we head further into the movie, the pace quickly speeds up, and with the unsubtitled polish dialog, it can be easy to miss something. This is not such a bad thing in my opinion, as it is a long story with several twist that requires a thoroughly fast pace to be shown in the time of a single film.

Why should you watch this movie? If you have had enough of the usual paranormal activity-like horror movies that has been released the last couple of years, i promise you this will be a refreshing experience. The story is imaginative, and somewhat unpredictable, you are kept unaware of who the actual hostile entity is until the very end. All in all the story of this movie really impressed me, this story will make you remember this movie far longer than you will remember most recent cheesy horror movies. However a warning is due. If good acting is important to you, this movie might be painful to watch.

Helix' Horrible Reviews

A couple of American journalists go to a small Eastern European village to investigate the mysterious death of a colleague.

Initially it seems like this might be another "Hostel" torture/gore type flick, but things are not what they appear in the first two-thirds of the movie. The director of Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer helmed this, and he has a good grasp of the genre.

What I liked was the straightforward plot device that is revealed at the conclusion. Pay close attention to what happens around the 32 minute mark because that's the basis for everything that follows.

The movie is fairly low budget, so don't go in looking for fantastic special effects, but they are serviceable. Also, this is not a keep-you-up-at-night type horror movie. It's more so the type that makes you think "What would I have done differently" to avoid what happened to these ppl.

I think the part that got me most is when the main characters asked the little girl if she heard of America, and she responded by saying "Cheesburgers?". I mean, what is this, 1960 cold war Romania? What was with those outfits? They looked more like 1800 style American farm dresses. I think if I were Polish, I would be insulted. If there were actually any people left in Poland still wearing traditional outfits in some small town, at least get some idea of what one looks like. I cannot believe that a film maker who gets funds to produce a movie does not take the time to do one days worth of research that would make a movie more authentic(forgetting the fact that even in the smallest town in Poland, they wear jeans). Besides that, the movie was poorly acted, though it did have some scary moments.