La cabaña del diablo

"Gallows Hill" (aka "The Damned") was actually a good enough movie, despite it being generic in every sense. The storyline was nothing new, but still the movie was entertaining for what it was and for the way it was directed.

A group of Americans are traveling in Columbia when they are in a landslide accident. Seeking refuge at a nearby old inn, the marooned come across an old man living all by himself. When they hear the cries of a young girl from the basement, things take a turn and things are not all what they appear. But as they release the girl from her confinement, little do they know what they have unleashed.

The storyline is good and there is a good continuous flow to the movie. Just a shame that the movie followed every book of "how to make a horror movie" there is, and it all was something seen before.

The acting in the movie was good, and the people had a proper script and proper characters to work with. And as such, that whole element added a layer of enjoyment to the movie.

I will say, though, for a horror movie, then there were surprisingly little scare moments in the entire movie.

"Gallows Hill" is a good enough choice for an evenings worth of movie entertainment.

A mediocre 5 out of 10 stars from me.

Basically, that's it...

The mood and look of the film were very good. The primary concept was fine, although somewhat familiar.

Many times with these Horror movies what really lets them down is subpar acting. But, I must admit that in this case I truly did not feel that there was anything wrong with the acting, all concerned did a fine job representing their roles.

And, without spoiling anything, one thing that I felt that did stand out, although it was very brief and somewhat minor towards the end, was that there was an added ability of the 'Entity' that was kind of a cool idea and revealed some surprising things.

But, ultimately, and I can't honestly point out exactly what was missing here, but the resulting story just seemed to end up without quite as much of a 'Punch' as I think it could have.

So, a somewhat familiar type story told in a competent way, but all in all not really anything that stands out in any way. A mildly decent watch if you don't have a whole lot else going on... : )

The Damned (or Gallows Hill, if you prefer) contains all the usual clichés we have seen in horror movies countless times before. Group of people get stranded during bad weather, find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, run into creepy old guy, get into trouble, horror ensues.. yadda yadda yadda....

OK, more precise: a group of guys (some American, some Colombian, two are supposedly mother and daughter, even though they look like at most 8 years different in age) are in Colombia for charity work. While on the move they are advised by a police officer to take a different road, but like usual idiots in a horror movie they decide to take the first option.

You guessed it, they end up stuck and have to find shelter in a nearby abandoned inn, run by the cliché creepy old man. While one of the ladies has to go to the bathroom she hears screaming from a young girl voice. She goes down into the basement and finds a young girl locked up. Of course, being horror movie idiots, they liberate the young girl against warnings and the party begins.

The movie starts with a short intro movie showing old pictures of witch execution, making me believe i would be a great supernatural horror movie for the October month.

Instead, it is tame, unscary, has little to no suspense and annoying characters who don't if they should speak English or Spanish the whole time. The demon girl characters totally fails to convince and never had me interested or scared.

After an hour or so, I decided my time was too valuable for this and switched it off. Simpy avoid.

4/10

Seriously, how do you make such a movie, watch it afterwards and think it is good to be distributed? Almost nothing saves it. The acting, the plot, the dialogues, the stereotype actions taken by the victims, nothing does the job. Don't watch, please, waste of time with dumb ending, and no one can care about the characters and what happened to them

OK so apparently Witches are the new concept to exploit. And apparently they can't die or something. This film was an opportunity to make a really sincerely scary horror film, but "the Damned" just doesn't hold it's weight. The movie was somewhat confusing, and overall it just wasn't scary enough. It started off a little creepy and atmospheric but that's only because the viewer is led on by gloomy surroundings and the location of the hotel they end up at. But once the "secrets" are revealed, it's pretty much all downhill. IFC has some very good films but this is one of the weaker ones. "The Squad" is a horror film that is also about witches and I totally recommend it over this movie.