Miedo al amanecer

Well, Solstice gets a high-five for good casting, visuals, sound and overall atmosphere.

Only problem is the story. It's the same type of ghost story a proper horror fan has seen a gazillion times. And it's a remake! Why? Also, at 87 minutes, this felt like hours. Bo-ring. There are red herrings, scary shadows, MTV-style flashbacks from the dead, and while it's all well done, it's all been done before. Thank you, but no.

Myrick had a mediocre movie (Believers, also (V)) and a good one ruined by a terribly miscast main actor and a "gotcha-sucker!" ending (The Objective). At least here, justice was served and this went straight to DVD where it belongs.

Eduardo Sanchez' "Altered", although more of a sci-fi horror hybrid on a low budget, is superior to all of the above mentioned films in my opinion. Here's hoping that Myrick (who has loads of talent) will make a proper great movie in the future.

5/10

I'm very surprised that it's NOT mentioned that Solstice is a remake of "Midsommer"(a Norwegian/Swedish, horror/drama/thriller, from 2003) I've seen both movies and the plot is almost identical. Of course the details is somewhat different, but overall, it is most definitely the same story. The Norwegian/Swedish story (being the original), IS better (also it made the theaters). Solstice offered no surprises and parts of the story was really to convenient (thinking specially of one of the characters, if you see the movie, you'll know what I'm talking about). If you haven't seen "Midsommer", then I recommend you to see it first (if you can) before "Solstice".

In these recent years we've seen so many horror films with one crazy plot twist after another and presenting us convoluted story lines and deranged denouements. So how surprised I was to discover that SOLSTICE manages to tell a ghostly mystery plot that is so basic and simple, it actually turned into a solid and engaging film. The mystery develops slow but steady. There's practically no shocks or gore, but the film didn't need all that. And there's only one twist featured within the film, but it's a good one. The mood and atmosphere are tense. The cinematography looks great. The swamp and woods settings are wonderful and creepy at the same time.

Veteran actor R. Lee Ermey has a small role, but his character actually has weight. Young actress Elisabeth Harnois plays a double role (Megan has a twin sister Sophie who's suicide becomes the core of the mystery) and I'd really love to see more of her. Aside from being beautiful, she's also perfectly capable of carrying this film with her lead performance.

I thoroughly enjoyed SOLSTICE because it's very effective without over-doing things. I even liked the ending, which for once does not include the whole cast being slaughtered at the end of the film or a crazy twist still killing off the protagonist unexpectedly. That would have been too easy and predictable. The way things come to a conclusion now, makes it a better film, separating itself from the obvious ones. To give you an idea, I thought SOLSTICE was better than recent films like THE MARSH (2006) and BENEATH (2007).

When I watched this movie, I was struck by how bland, boring, and predictable it was. It was never actually bad or anything, but it was arguably memorable for being so forgettable. It was only after I came to the IMDb that I discovered it was directed by one of the guys responsible for that utter borefest, The Blair Witch Project. At that moment, everything made sense to me, and I felt totally vindicated in my intense dislike for TBWP (which all my friends, at the time, seemed to think was pure genius). I also realized that this director had done The Believers, which was, unsurprisingly, a bit of a borefest, though the ending was kind of cool (even though it was stolen from a Arthur C. Clarke story). Unfortunately, this movie doesn't really have an interesting twist to save it, unless you're really, really unfamiliar with the last 50 years worth of ghost stories coming out of Hollywood.

Eduardo Sanchez, the co-director of TBWP, made a pretty good movie a few years ago, called Altered, about a group of friends who have a really nasty series of run-ins with malevolent aliens. Unlike this one, I walked in to that movie thinking it was going to be crap, but I was quite surprised at how much I liked it. It was suspenseful, gory, and, while it wasn't really original, it still managed to put its own spin on a common theme (alien abduction). Really, it was more a movie about rape than anything else, couched in science fiction/horror elements. This movie? It's exactly what it looks like -- a group of stupid teenagers (played by 30 year old actors, of course), including a depressed girl, the depressed girl's best friend, an insensitive jerk, the insensitive jerk's long-suffering girlfriend, and the depressed girl's love interest (who also happens to be her dead twin sister's ex-boyfriend), spend about 70 minutes getting drunk, followed by about 15-20 minutes of plot, wherein they follow the psychic intuitions of the depressed girl, only to solve a Scooby Doo mystery. Unfortunately, this movie has all the thrills, mystery, and suspense of your average Scooby Doo episode, perhaps due to the PG rating. Amusingly, the ghosts ended up just standing around, in the background, looking as bored as I felt, while I was watching this movie.

Prepare to be bored to death, rather than scared to death.

The plot is almost like that of What Lies Beneath, but played amongst teenagers. Very well made, the acting is authentic, characters are diverse and the plot doesn't give in till the end. The camera work and editing is very smooth, and not overdone, the sound effects as well. All in all you would enjoy this movie and worth your money.

The down side for those thrill seekers and horror fans, is there is zero suspense, and no jolts, not even with the sound effects. It's more on the drama side. The Sixth Sense is far more scarier than this.

And for those who likes skins, well, although all of the actors and actress are very good looking there is no part in the movie that could turn you on, RATED PG!