Plague Town

Anyone who knows horror knows that this misunderstood genre has seen much better days. The 90's was by far the worst period ever, although our current decade hasn't been THAT much better. Most people are limited to the mainstream, the first 4 Saw's were good, and our pal. Rob Zombie has made quite an impact, but The truth is, nowadays, independent horror is the only place to find true quality. I'm not talking about Dimension Extreme independent, I'm talking about Subrosa independent, I'm talking about Troma independent, yeah, B-movies. Some are worthless, some are awesome, but once in awhile, even in this day in time, one might stumble across a rare work of art, just waiting to be discovered. Enter Plague Town.

About a family, none of which seem to enjoy each others company, vacationing in the depths of Ireland. They have some British guy with them, apparently to keep the more ornery daughter quiet, which doesn't work, but it was a nice thought nonetheless.

The bickering family, along with British guy, wonder around just long enough to miss the bus back, but is eventually offered help by a harmless, yet peculiar stranger, even though they didn't feel they needed it, although, it's not dark yet , now is it?

There are some disturbing things that come out at night around these parts, dangerous things with bad intentions that aren't necessarily looking to kill, but what this family doesn't realize, there are some scenario's far worse than death.

I am Impressed beyond words, Plague Town is proof that The Horror genre is alive and well, and I was starting to worry, but never mind, David Gregory is on it. Eli Roth could learn a thing or two from this guy. Certain things, as insignificant as they may seem, really brings out the horror in the horror. Everything about Plague Town looks dark and desolate, not a lot of color. Plague Town is not over-scored, which is also a plus. Very little character development, as strange as that may seem, makes for quality horror, the less you know the better, in this genre mystery equals success. The vibe of Plague Town reminds me of obscure horror gems of the 70's, like Messiah Of Evil and Bruial Ground, as if it just ended up with the pure essence of horror by accident. We're looking at quality from all directions, from the simple, yet horrifying plot, to the subtle, yet haunting score, to the brutality and hopelessness, to that adorable, worried-looking chick. They got it all right. Plague Town is the horror masterpiece of the decade. 8/10

"Plague Town" has something many horror movies are lacking, especially the more recent ones. That being charismatic, interesting characters.

The family members really don't get along too well, resulting in humorous dialogue which works in the context of the scenes. Even when it's clear something isn't right, the father tries to prevent his daughter from leaving, thinking it too dangerous. Of course when her boyfriend volunteers, said father encourages him.

The problem? Well, after people start dying, without expendable characters the character dynamics fall apart, resulting in a horror movie considerably less entertaining when the horror begins than previously.

At "Gorezone Weekend of Horrors", it did have one scene which made the audience gasp due to shock. I'm not spoiling that part.

What is the reason for making a movie so dark you can't even see what's happening? No budget for lights?

Plague Town does manage to create a great atmosphere, so it does achieve what it sets out to do, so credit must be given there. However, atmosphere can't work alone, and unfortunately that's all that the film has going for it.

We have a group of characters who we really don't care for, below par acting performances and a poor script, which makes me feel as though the great atmosphere was somewhat wasted, which is the biggest disappointment of Plague Town.

There are some brutal scenes of violence. Some looked really good and some looked really fake, but for a low budget film, i thought the production level was good, it was just unfortunate that the acting and script couldn't help keep the film afloat!

Overall, for independent horror, Plague Town isn't terrible. In fact, its better than a lot of horror movies out there. I just couldn't help but feel that it should have been much better!

Oddly enough I have never gotten around to watching the 2008 movie "Plague Town" before now late in 2019, and I am a big horror fan. But I did sit down, finally, and watched it.

This wasn't really an outstanding movie and it was a less than mediocre horror experience, so it turned out that I hadn't really been missing out on a horror gem for all these years.

The storyline just failed to fully entice me, and it just felt like another run-of-the-mill-dysfunctional-countryside-family-gone-bad type of movie, like what you'd see in "Wrong Turn", "The Hills Have Eyes" and the like. So on that account "Plague Town" drowned in all the other movies on the market.

The acting in the movie was adequate, but it was a shame that the actors and actresses had so very little to work with in terms of a captivating script and storyline, and characters that weren't really all that interesting to begin with.

As for the horror aspect of the movie, well it wasn't outstanding or memorable, especially not to a seasoned horror veteran such as myself.

I managed to sit through the entire movie, but I weren't really entertained, and this is definitely not a movie that I will be returning to watch a second time. My rating of "Plague Town" is a four out of ten stars. This is mostly because of the production value that the movie had to it.