Curse of the Sin Eater

I was taken totally by surprise by this movie, it was excellent! The casting was perfect with the lead actor giving a gritty and realistic portrayal of a young guy having an extremely difficult time with his life!

Shrimp's appearance and demeanor are disturbing, but totally realistic in showing the poverty and desperation of a working class kid on Chicago's rough South Side. I am very impressed with his performance and just about every member of the cast as well - they evoked genuine emotion on my part.

The story line is based on an old Indian practice, but with a very surprising twist - the sin eater ALWAYS was headed for punishment, but after death. With this film the punishment starts on day one and includes an accumulation of sins from past sin eaters!

Excellent plot, execution of that plot with fine acting in all quarters! This was a surprise delight of a movie!

Congrats to all people connected with its production!!!!

No pun intended - the movie is quite unique ... or rather its story is. And it is almost a shame it does not take more advantage of it. We are talking about something that you are not seeing that often. Not saying the story is completely unique ... but with some better ideas, a script that added a few things (scenes or character traits) .. it could have been .. well a contender I assume.

Acting is ok or decent ... but you won't be too amazed by it. The main character is quite bland - which is the biggest issues one can attach to it. You have to root for him ... I reckon the twists and the effects do safe the movie a bit ... but again, you have to love low budget movies ... and horror/fantasy inspired stuff too ... wicked, not always in the best sense.

I feel like i complain about movies being longer than they need to be a lot these days. Not this time!

There's something new here, and I really enjoyed the premise of the movie. Most of the creepy moments were effective, and overall there were plenty of creepy moments. SFX were good enough, especially considering the apparent budget.

It could have been the overall fast pacing of the movie that led to this (which i very much appreciated), but I felt like the ending was very rushed. There was more fun to be had here. The movie could have benefitted from exploring the lead character more, especially after the ritual, as well as just a better performance from Carter Shimp.

This was a healthy and enjoyable 6 for me that will most likely warrant revisiting.

Curse of the Sin Eater is a pretty original making of a historical ritual. According to Wikipedia: "A sin-eater is a person who consumes a ritual meal in order to spiritually take on the sins of a deceased person. The food was believed to absorb the sins of a recently dead person, thus absolving the soul of the person."

However, this movie takes a historical idea and gives it very unique twists and turns. You need however to fight the urge to skip forward to see how it ends.

Elizabeth Laidlaw and Larry Yando give a masterful performance, and the cast of characters blends quite well.

If you manage to predict the amazing ending then congratulate yourself, and buy yourself a prize. I hope there will be a sequel.

Sin Eaters exist in folklore, and take on the transgressions of a deceased person. It's a notion full of possibilities for a modern horror film. But they are never realized here. There is not enough horror to call this a horror film, and not enough suspense to call it a thriller. The main inspiration seems to be Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, with a stern-faced housekeeper overseeing a forbidding mansion. But even this isn't fully exploited. A few setups show some promise to bring this up a notch, but the execution is lacking and the ideas are never fleshed out.

Basically, it feels like a made-for-cable film on a tight budget. The acting from everyone is bland. Nothing in it is particularly memorable or noteworthy. It gets three stars because there is lots worse on streaming services, but there is also lots better.