The Windmill Massacre

Call me a sentimentalist, but I really love it when countries bring forward movies that are somehow linked to their own heritage, culture or fauna! For example, I love it when Australia makes another movie about a giant killer crocodile, or when Austria releases a splatter flick about Lederhosen zombies, and I was really excited when I found out that The Netherlands was going to bring out a folklore horror movie about windmills! I'm not a Dutchman myself, but I live next door in Belgium and spent a lot of time traveling around in The Netherlands. The country is full of windmills and, especially when you drive past them when night is falling, they often look eerie and sinister out there in the open fields, so it's about freaking time they finally form the decor of a horror movie! Of course I'm slightly biased, and I probably awarded the film with at least one more point than it deserves, but "The Windmill Massacre" is good entertainment with a more than adequate screenplay, above average performances, a reasonable amount of suspense and quite a lot of exhilarating gore and bloodshed!

First and foremost, the film rather cleverly solves a typical issue that Dutch speaking productions always struggle with! It sounds horrible when Dutch or Belgian actors/actresses attempt to speak English, so instead of that, "The Windmill Massacre" almost exclusively stars native English speakers that are supposedly tourists in Amsterdam. That's just smart, period! Following a whole bunch of separate clips that only start making sense later in the film, 7 people (an Aussie girl, a former model, an Asian student, a mariner, a surgeon and a British father with his teenage son) board a ramshackle tour bus that takes them on a trip past several idyllic windmills. The bus naturally breaks down, but when two courageous passengers head towards a nearby windmill for help, they painfully experience that the miller – Hendrik – is a nastily deformed and bloodthirsty type of avenging demon. This group wasn't coincidentally put together, as it turns out they all have committed horrible sins and now they have to pay for them. For a horror flick from The Netherlands, "The Windmill Massacre" has a solid and compelling story to tell (especially in comparison to other recent titles like "Dood Eind" or "De Poel"), and you'll even gladly overlook the rather many clichés and improbabilities in the script. The film also features loads of gratifying gore and delightful make- up effects. Hendrik, the deadly miller, looks like a hybrid between Jason Voorhees and the Chatterer Cenobite from the original "Hellraiser". There's a cool urban legend linked to his existence (something about selling his soul to the devil) and enjoys things like stomping people's heads with his boots or throwing rusty chains in people's faces. Good, unpretentious entertaining Holland should be proud of!

My quick rating - 5,4/10. This flick seems to attempt to touch upon quite a few genres at once and does so somewhat successfully. The movie is about the struggle of being taken to hell by a grim reaper type character which is explained within the movie. Each character is being judged due to their sins of the past which unfold in a flashback type way. The story itself is played out quite well albeit completely full of holes. The supernatural aspect seems to come and go and never really solidifies itself. The acting is average, no complaints or applause. When they do head down the gore route, it is poured on well without being the focal point of the film. I found it interesting enough to hold my attention and although I could see a never ending amount of sequels possible (which the ending says, not me) I hope they leave it alone. An above average flick if even slightly which is fine.

...n a supernatural touch to it, with good character development n picturesque cinematography. I was really excited to see this film. Had read somewhere that the extended clip of this film was released way back in 2013. Been on my watch list for a very long time. Finally bought a pirated dvd. I think that my dvd is a different version as the scene (the killer in yellow jacket chasing a female in broad day light n piercing her palm) shown in the You Tube trailer is not there. Considering that this is Nick Jongerius debut film (Producer of Frankenstein's Army), he did a decent job. I skipped his Frankensteins Army as m not a fan of hand held camera stuff. Well this is not a great film but not bad either. Horror fans may like it. Slasher fans will enjoy it more. It has shades of Hatchet part one, Jeepers Creepers part one. Some solid gore n killings. Being a debut film, it did showed the director's lack of creating suspense n tension. But he managed to develop the characters well. It has lovely cinematography by Bart Beekman. The only thing I did not dig was that of the marine's "sin". Wasn't it an accident? Also the doctor's? Can someone explain plz.

Windmills are cool - we all know this. So naturally when I saw there was a horror movie centered around a windmill, I was all in. When I saw that it wasn't another shitty found footage movie, I was even more intrigued. After watching it, I can honestly say it's one of the more enjoyable horror films I've seen recently (and there aren't a lot of those, let me tell you). It's a slasher flick basically with an interesting setting and some creative and gory kills, at least two of which genuinely took me by surprise and gave me a bit of a jump. The windmill backdrop itself is the movie's biggest plus although I was disappointed they didn't make better use of the location scenery. Most of the movie takes place on what appeared to me to be an obvious set. Had more of it taken place where they filmed the initial windmill stuff it would have been better, in my opinion. But I guess that would have made doing proper special effects more difficult on a low budget. As it is, there's nothing really 'wrong' with the set, just that I think it would've been more effective using more of the location shooting. Anyway, the cast is good. There's a guy who reminds me of Long Duk Dong from Sixteen Candles. There's never anything bad about that. As I said before, the kills are mostly creative, and some of the gross-out stuff is funny. It's definitely worth a look if, like me, you are tired of most of the horror output today, which seems to be found footage and knock-offs of horror classics like Exorcist and Poltergeist.

The new Nederhorror brought to us from the director, Nick Jongerius, who brought us Frankenstein's Army (2013). A horror that wasn't my cup of tea at all but this one was stated as a throw back to the slashers.

To be honest, it does has elements of that particular genre but again, it's typical Nick to add some weird elements to the story. In fact, there's a lot of supernatural stuff going on so I really can't say that it is a slasher. There's a killer out but the elements to call it a slashers aren't in it, no point of view from the killer for example. But I do liked it more then the Frankenstein flick. The reason is that there are some gory shots here and there and the fact that the ending had a big surprise that I can't go deeper in or I would have to spoil.

Due the gore added, it's worth picking up but the supernatural stuff wasn't my thing at all. I could compare it with Jason Voorhees in the latest Friday The 13th flicks were he's still coming back again and again, he really can't be killed and that being mixed with the killer from the Hatchet franchise.

Not for everybody but entertaining enough to watch it with some friends.

Gore 1,5/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 3/5 Story 2,5/5 Comedy 0/5