Archons

If you standard of quality for monster movies worth watching is nothing less than that of Aliens, then Archons will disappoint. If you are more laid back about such matters, this movie is fine entertainment. The four principle characters are interesting, each in a unique way, and chemistry between them is quickly established. All this helps a viewer care what happens to them, which is important for maintaining interest during the first 40 minutes, when the story is developing a bit slow as they canoe down a Canadian river.

Special mention should also be made of Cameron Tremblay's work with lighting and colors. His efforts really helped establish an ominous ambience right from the start.

I had high hopes for this film - Nick Szostakiwskyj's previous offering, *Black Mountain Side*, is a criminally underrated folk horror. But there's no story here, no continuity or coherence, no attempt to explore the mythology. I'm still not entirely sure what I just watched.

Edit: It is better on a second watch, but only slightly. Yes, it's beautifully shot. Yes, the audio is great. Yes, the actors are on point. I guess I either wanted to know more about the nature of the threat or see less of it.

This movie just made me realise that evangelicals, scientologists, and dominionists are all gnostics, even the cult I grew up in and people who believe in the illuminati and aliens. What a permeating thread throughout history. Demons suppressing human and testing them in life and death. What a superstitious world we live in. Carl Sagan was right. Science is a candle in the demon haunted world.

A simple story of dead rockstars in a horrid limbo. I liked it.

If your into isolated location/horror strange creature films and accept these types of films for what they are, then this is defiantly worth a watch, i quite enjoyed it.

If you expect oscar winning acting from every film and are the sort of person to pick at small things, probaly not for you.

I usually rate movies worse than the IMDb rating, this is one of the more glaring exceptions. I liked Black Mountain Side from the director and this one is in the same slow building atmospheric Lovecraft subgenre. It's not perfect, actors and pacing could have been better, but Szostakiwskyj creates a one of a kind mood, I very much enjoy, especially in the later half of the movie. I really hope we get more films of this kind from him!