A Lenda Negra

American youngsters travelling the world, possibly on their a gap year, meet up with locals Down Under, a bit of romance, maybe, and a ghost tale? Drive down a certain road late at night, and you will see a mysterious light behind you. For real? Yup. Whacko, let's do it again! Not a good idea. In fact not a good anything, because that is as good as it gets. Sure, there is horror herein, a body appears and disappears, one of the girls sees a ghost neither of her companions can see, and is lured into a lake. After apparently spending minutes underwater she is brought to the surface conscious but none the worse for it, although maybe possessed by the spirit of a murder victim, which appears to be the reason they are out here in the woods.

The trouble is the whole thing is so confusing; there is even terrestrial menace afoot, but what is the viewer to make of it? Added to this, most of the action takes place in the dark, which is where you will probably end up if you sit right through this one.

If I may say, this movie is nothing but scary and shocking images.

The time-line goes all over the place, screenplay makes no sense, scenario was appalling.

Basically no story that makes sense.

This movie is an insult to common sense.

That't about it.

To rectify this basic flaws would seems impossible to be done. Maybe with a believable story-line, retaking of some of the scenes, an just about OK movie can still come out of this mess.

But then again, what do I know. I never made a movie before.

The fact is, I can't enjoy this movie. Maybe you can...

Lemon Tree Passage looks like a movie made from three different rejected screenplays. It's utterly inconsistent, shifting its tone multiple times and using cliché base premise that doesn't pan out in any way. It even has stupid teenagers cast who mock how ridiculous campfire story is, and then the movie proceeds on doing that exact same ridiculous cliché.

This is the same old story about a group of teenager who try an urban legend. The characters are identical to almost every other horror movies, the main lead brunette who has visions all the time, the possible love interest cool guy, the blondie and the comic relief. They behave in a very predictable way, this might just be a copy of bloopers from 80s horror movie.

After a while the logic crumbles as both the characters and even the haunting act in such arbitrary manner. Splitting up in crisis is foolish, but these people split up off-screen without any reasons. The supposed entity even haunts sporadically, it jumps from scene to scene as urban legend, possession and whatever horror gimmick the mood takes it.

The movie is a consecutive series of random occurrences which lose any sense of continuity or even structure after thirty minutes, which is already thirty minutes of your life that could've been saved.

The American Maya (Jessica Tovey), Amelia (Pippa Black) and her brother Toby (Tim Pocock) are spending vacation in Australia. The meet the locals Geordie (Tim Phillipps) and Oscar (Andrew Ryan) on the beach and Oscar tells a ghost story at the campfire. He tells that a ghost of a motorcyclist appears at the Lemon Tree Passage intersection when a car with teenagers speeds up at the spot. They decide to go to the location to see the ghost with tragic consequences.

"Lemon Tree Passage" is a horror movie with a story that is a senseless mess. It is impossible to understand the plot that begins with the ghost of a married motorcyclist and ends with the fiend of a raped girl that was murdered. Is Sam the older brother of Geordie? Why the evil ghost seeks revenge against the teenagers and not only against Sam? Why Maya is connected and possessed by the evil spirit? There are so many questions to be made that better off not waste time watching this flick. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "A Lenda Negra" ("The Black Legend")

So close to give this one a solid 6, but I rated it a 5, tho I think it deserves a 5.5 overall. Why such a good grade? Well because it is confusing, has more to offer, quite a dark tension, the only thing that killed it for me, was the plot. In the end, you'll get to see what this is about, a subject used 1000 times at least!

Thus, I approve to the execution, the style, acting, it has a lot of things you've seen before, many familiar horror scenes, but they did make the most of them and about 80% of the movie, everything is a blur. It keeps you guessing and has a lot to offer for such a little production. Once the end approaches, you kinda anticipate where it is heading and it really feels like a tired old formula, but, you did get so far, so most likely you'll find the strength to watch it till the credits. Anyway, it is a good movie, I enjoyed it, far better than most, overall, a cute little indie production.

For a "in the woods" horror, I think Lemon Tree Passage is definitely a "try it once" movie, because it is a nice add-on to such productions and it would be a shame to let it pass unnoticed. Quite glad I got my eyes on it, don't expect a master piece, but surely some good ol' fun.

Lemon Tree Passage has a lot of the old, in a new mix, that manages to offer 90 minutes of good time! I think most of you will agree on that. Remember, I did grade it a 5 star, so I'm not head over heals impressed here, but considering the budget, the plot and so on, I think it did OK.

Cheers!