Wrath of Thorn

Upon returning to Avondale, a woman's attempts to reconcile with her parents bring her into contact with the cult that protects the inhuman killer Thorn who's out to continue honoring the pact that initially brought him to the town and band together with several others to stop it from continuing.

Overall, this was an immensely fun conclusion to the trilogy. Among the better features of this one stem from the inclusion of various elements here that help to build up the full purpose of the killer's reign and purpose in the city. That this one goes back and manages to introduce the original ceremony that summoned Thorn to the area and gives why his rampages are centered around Leap Day or the specific family he's been targeting the entire time that helps to tie everything together is a great way to go about this. The reason why the cult initially brought him about and what he was intended to do is a nice touch here which comes about with the inclusion of the various characters from the past to inform the commando team protecting the latest target about what's happening which is not only proves to be a solid singular storyline anyway but also gives the full meaning to everything that's happened so far into context. Outside of that, there's still a lot of fun to be had with the traditional stalking scenes on display. The flashback scene showing the cult preparing the ceremonial summoning of the hulking killer and putting everything in motion is a fine start, while the scene where the daughter returns to meet up with her family that goes for the series of chases and interactions with the cult chasing after them has a few fun bits of action included. The commando team encountering the supernatural antics of the cult are also really enjoyable, with the spectacular scene with them impaired by a blinding sandstorm hiding his attacks or the great encounter at the abandoned school where they encounter the killer and the cult minions once again giving this a solid enough series of encounters featuring more of an Action-movie bent based on the types of stalking scenes featured here. With the hulking killer still looking quite impressive and managing to get some creative and bloody kills involved, there's plenty to like here despite some factors holding it back. The main drawback to the film is a bit of a weak finale that manages to go for a more mystical-inspired way of defeating the killer that comes off quite awkwardly. The whole idea of waiting around for certain participants to get involved at first halts the tempo and pacing significantly while the action presented tends to be quite confusing and scattered when it's finally time to get started with the ritual. With way too many participants around with their own agendas to carry out during the fight, it can get a habit hard to tell who's doing what for what purpose, and introducing the concept of mystical powers and sacred artifacts does detract slightly from the more grounded aspects the rest of the series had employed. The other slight issue is the naturally obvious low budget at points, whether it's the CGI or effects-work that gives itself away, but are thankfully not as detrimental to this one.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

My rating could easily go up in future, as I've only seen the first of MJ Dixon's Thorn films, and was probably missing the context which Mask of Thorn would provide (the elements which were most directly connected to said film were the only real bits where it lost me). That first film, Legacy of Thorn, definitely has its charms, but the difference between that and Wrath of Thorn is night and day, and is clearly the work of an incredibly talented filmmaker who has honed his craft over the years. Someone I watched this with described it as being like a Paul W. S. Anderson Resident Evil movie crossed with post-2005 Doctor Who, which is incredibly accurate (positive), though the thing it brought to mind most for me personally was the Phantasm films, especially the increasingly apocalyptic sequels.

It was lovely to be able to meet MJ and several other members of the cast and crew at Horror-on-Sea, and I'm totally going to play favourites - the "Mycho" flicks at this year's Horror-on-Sea were overall some of the best stuff I saw all weekend. The red levels on the sound mix for this screening must have been nuts, which is my one minor technical nitpick, but to be honest some of that's gotta be chalked up to the difficulties of hosting a horror fest in a hotel ballroom.