This is kind of a hard one to write about. If it were just the story alone and it had not been so well technically put together, I probably wouldn't have even bothered to write a review about it.
The story itself is basically pretty simple. You definitely will need subtitles for the non-English parts so you will be able to understand what the indigenous people are saying and dealing with, not to mention some important dialog between Lazarus and his, uh... companion. If you do not have subtitles, then you will not be able to follow the story very well, unless of course you happen to speak the South African language that is being spoken : )
I think one of the reviews that I read on one of the sites I normally check for films like this stated that he felt that this film had one of the best openings he had ever seen. I would agree. But, I don't feel it ever really reaches that level of intensity from that point on. And, FWIW, the cinematography, lighting, and editing are are done extremely well. The scenic shots are lovely. This is a VERY beautiful looking movie. BUT... in my lowly and wretched opinion I feel that although crafted really, really well, and the acting by the primary Lazarus was outstanding (the girl, not so much...) ultimately, to me the story was not really quite substantial enough or fully satisfying to fill it out completely. It was okay and certainly not terrible, and like I've mentioned, technically executed really well. I just don't think that it really packed the 'punch' that it could have. It kind of went in a more Metaphysical, ethereal direction as opposed to cranking up the intensity, which with this kind of Horror film I think would have worked better. The very, very ending though, not mentioning anything specific of course, but the ending at the very last moment is a little bit of a Gobsmack, but I didn't really quite understand it. As a matter of fact, I was just now kind of scouring the Internet to see if I could find some opinions or explanations about what it meant : )
Anyway, honestly not a film that I would get hugely excited about, I gave it a '6' which for me is just about at the borderline of maybe being worth a look. But, I really DID think it was a very beautiful movie and it was constructed very well, so I thought that it was at least worth a mention here...
I would say that if you truly don't mind extremely slow and fairly simply plotted films and you appreciate beautiful photography and some light but decent atmosphere AND you are not expecting a lot, then you might find this one mildly enjoyable.
