The Crucifixion

I can't really tell how I feel about this movie. On the one hand it tries to be a remake of The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and they shouldn't try that. That one was a masterpiece. Secondly, they shoot the Romania scenes in Transylvania, the actual events took place in Moldova. This is like shooting a western in Manhattan. Then, they portray Romania in general to be like in the 1800s. It reminded me of the Amish. Of course, even in villages, Romanians don't live like that. They didn't use Romanians to play the roles, so the acvent of some of them when they speak Romanian are devastating. The acting overall is average, but not as bad as some say here

Not the most exciting film, it's a horror mystery, that's more mystery than horror and the mystery was not that interesting. It was about a faithless journalist trying to prove God is not real by doing a story about a Priest in jail for murder because an exorcism went wrong. Sounds like a good story. The setting of the movie also seemed good as it takes place in Romania, during a holiday that, according to the film is similar to Halloween, and when I herd this at the beginning of the film I was jazzed to watch a Halloween picture during the season.  The Crucifixion shows a lot of elements of mystery and sexuality that makes if feel like a homage of Hammer Horror, but it falls a little short from become a classic of even a cult classic, real short.

What the hell is this crap? What happened here?

This is so by the numbers, so bland, so boring. Check it out: every single jump scare in this movie, which is pretty much every single "scare", is accomplished with an ear piercingly loud sound. Seriously. Every time. A car horn. A dogs bark. A bang on a door. And the sound is so ridiculously loud, while the talking is super low. Man I was just so effing angry. It pains your ears. And the sound is not even accompanied by scary imagery! Most of the times it's just a fake scare. With SUCH loud noise. JEEEZ.

The best thing about the movie is Sophie Cookson. She does the best she can with a very uninteresting and boring script. There is very little gore, the little there is is OK. There are a couple of effects, they also work. But all in all it's just very tame. The story, I think, leans on being "true". Unfortunately it's still boring.

I should probably give this a lower score, but if my mood were better I think I might have enjoyed it more. Also, the movie does have some qualities, it's just all to by the numbers.

Like 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose' (based on the true story of Anneliese Michel) this movie is also based on the true story of the Tanacu exorcism, which was a case wherein Maricica Irina Cornici, a mentally ill nun at the Romanian Orthodox Church monastery of Tanacu in Vaslui County, Romania, was killed during an exorcism by priest Daniel Petre Corogeanu with the help of four other nuns.

Adelina's story is told through a series of flashbacks and this is where there are some truly disturbing elements and shocking visuals which push the genre from murder/mystery/thriller to actual horror.

The Romanian setting has an almost Gothic allure and certainly adds atmosphere.

Although there were some cheap jump-scares it did actually manage to shock (and disgust) me a couple of times when something 'real' occurred.

I don't want to come across as negative in this review as this is a nicely made movie, however it's nothing I haven't seen before (done better).

6/10

Storylines not bad and it's nice and scary but the main actor is rubbish