jason-36929

It's a stage play in movie format. The dialogue is very good, the acting is spot on. The lead nails his "slightly guilty guy" role, and the femme fatale is wonderfully fatale. It's all about building tension and putting yourself in the protagonist's shoes. Intoxicated by alcohol and transfixed by her - at what point would I run away? If you can't or don't want to project onto the lead as an audience surrogate then you probably won't feel much from this film. I suspect that's the root of many of the low review scores.

It probably could have done with a better title, but it's difficult to come up with something that doesn't spell it all out straight away. Mind you, the situation becomes pretty self-evident fairly early on. It's not about the reveal - we all know it's coming - it's about the tension of knowing he (you) could leave at any time, but...

My main criticism of this film is that almost everything about it is trying its best to stop you suspending your disbelief and enjoy the ride.

The werewolves are the central threat, but their costumes and masks are laughably poor and not at all scary if you're over five years old. The werewolf leader in human form has a ridiculous lisp due to his oversize plastic chompers, and his cheesy villainous monologues are the opposite of terrifying. And there are no actual wolves (or any other animals) in the film.

The supposedly medieval village buildings are obviously modern constructions made of machined wood with perfectly straight lines and right angles everywhere, especially the interiors. The knights wear their perfectly shiny plate armour 24 hours a day. The props, weapons etc. Are all pristine and obviously made with power tools. Whitened teeth, perfect close shaves, clippered haircuts, modern colours in the peasants' clothing, a map apparently made with a computer and a laser printer... the list goes on. The only effort to inject some grime is a bit of burnt cork rubbed on the actors' faces and liberal amounts of red corn syrup daubed and splashed about to represent blood.

If you can forgive and forget the almost constant visual sabotage, then the actual storyline, dialogue and performances are passable, but not great. The actors playing the knights make a decent effort with their dialogue to deliver interesting and distinct characters with fun interpersonal conflicts - these are guys you can root for and I enjoyed their scenes. The young protagonist however is not particularly likeable. For most of the film he is cowardly and ineffectual with no balancing charm or other redeeming features. His main skills seem to be begging for help, sobbing, dropping things and falling over. As for the ending, well it's really not the high point the writer(s) hoped it would be... I'd say cutting the last 15 minutes and leaving us to extrapolate would probably have made the film better, or perhaps just skipping the action scene at the castle and cutting to the final resolution scene would have worked.

On the plus side the sound production is good. The dialogue is always clear, which is an accomplishment with most of the scenes being filmed outdoors. Ambient sounds are used well, as is the almost continuous background music and dynamic musical score which is well synchronised with the action and dramatic dialogue. The photography and editing are pretty good and support the storytelling. The liberal use of daytime outdoor shots and natural daylight is to be commended; too many films of this genre over-rely on gloomy lighting to cover a multitude of sins and the audience experience is worse for it.

Overall, some enjoyable aspects, but I think the main letdowns are the frankly terrible villain(s), the discount werewolf costumes, the multitude of visual anachronisms, the writing of a rather lacklustre protagonist, and the final action scene.

A perfect evocation of the old black and white style of creepy horror. The screenplay is in the style of a stage play to make the most of the budget. The film uses a great real life location in the decrepit mansion, nice costumes, and some super lighting to flex the b&w. The musical score was perfect, capturing the 1930s mood, and the sound recording was very good with the dialogue cutting through nicely. The story made sense in its own way, and the characters were all likeable and easy to empathise with. The cast all threw themselves into their performances with gusto and didn't hold back as the craziness exploded. The practical effects were great and the scary/funny mix was spot on. Clearly the whole production crew had a whale of a time and so did I. When a film is made with this much love you can kinda tell.