Satanic

It seems like one of the hardest things to get out of Hollywood or an indie producer is a decent horror movie. "Satanic" is yet another in a long line of below par, forgettable horror movies made in the past 10 years. But at least it's not another crappy found footage film.

The production values on this movie are pretty good... again, no shaky, hokey found footage documentary-style garbage. Sound editing is pretty solid. The movie poster is ridiculous, but the movie looks and sounds pretty good.

But the story is weak... the story that picks up with Alice in the hotel makes no sense, and there's not much attempt to explain any of it. And these characters are awful. From the start, the four travelers come across as a bunch of self-absorbed, arrogant jerks. Seth the "goth" guy is particularly punchable. David and Elise are okay, but the former is pretty unbearable at the start. The tighten up a bit and get better as the trouble starts hitting them, but by that point I really had lost all interest in them. Some people have mentioned Sarah Hyland as being a star of some sort, but I've never heard of her or seen her show, and in this movie she's just your average "good girl" that you get in a horror movie... ends up being the Scream Queen. But she's not all that impressive... more irritating towards the end than anything else, really.

And the ending... meh.

If you don't expect much from your horror movies and are a very generous sort, it's possible you could give this a 4, I suppose. I was originally going to give this a 1, but that's not fair given the number of staggeringly awful horror films out there (like "American Poltergeist", "Ouija Experiment 2", etc).

A tour of LA's creepiest places leads to a chance encounter with a strange woman and a dangerous ritual for four visiting students.

The protagonists are unlikeable, and the time wasted developing them just makes them more so, but there's enough that's creepy and disturbing about Satanic to make it an acceptable horror film. Nothing you'll want to see twice, but if you and your friends just want a dumb horror movie, Satanic is better than a lot of things you could settle for.

At times, it feels like a vanity project for Hyland, whose character is the movie's conscience and reason and everything else that's supposedly decent and mature, but as with all vanity projects, it ends up a poor way to showcase her potential. When she wants to be cute, she's cute enough, but when she's scared she comes off as hysterical, and when she's righteous, she comes off as overbearing. It's hard to say how much of this is the fault of the script or direction.

After watching this on Netflix tonight I looked it up here at IMDb to learn more about it. What I learned is that apparently I am about the only soul who liked it. I was not expecting much, but it 'grew' on me. Now, I will agree with others who point out the characters are --- mostly--- not at all likable. Seth is particularly unpleasant; who would put up with a friend like him? There is a very effective 'callback' at the end of the film to a minor event at the beginning and the filmmakers have done a nice job of whipping up a nightmare as the picture races to its end. I did not find the climax at all confusing... if you remember what a character said earlier about Hell. Perhaps this motion picture is not for everyone. But, that just means those of us who like it will enjoy it all the more. By all means, see for yourself and make your own call.

Pretty average movie overall sub par story line somewhat offset by good acting.

I don't think it deserves the particularly scathing reviews on here - the story line was a bit muddled but the acting was actually quite good. The characters are played quite well and the main actress (Sarah Hyland from modern family) does a brilliant job in this.

It has some scares in it probably not as much as your used to from your average horror movie though. Its kind of creepy but again not as much as your average horror. Where it shines is the few scares it does have are very well placed and managed to give me a couple of jolts. There's a lot in this movie that you have to piece together for yourself - the movie itself doesn't seem to really care whether you got the plot point or got lost along the way and explains nothing.

All up 5/10 - 7/10 for the acting, 3/10 for the story line.

I only did that because 1 is the lowest point, so I felt generous enough and gave it yet another one!

I watch a lot of underground productions, trying to help the community out, reviewing movies that have no comments, warning people if necessary, advertising for others and so on. Few nights ago I stumbled upon Satanic, I saw who was the lead actress so of course it had to be done. Nothing out of the ordinary for starters, typical moves, acting, plot, until something else decides to happen.

And from nothing much, comes probably around 100 screams in 20 minutes. I actually got a headache from watching this one, and I am not kidding. The reveal itself is horrible, completely useless, just some scenes put there to shock, to allow this movie to call itself a horror. The real horror was in front of the screen, me, bored out of my mind but also trying to lower the volume without leaving the bed. The screaming won. I moved! Like hypnotized! This is all you get: screams, screams, screams. And of course no explanation.

I really wished Satanic was as the poster showed. Far from it. 2 stars! That says a lot. Not recommended.

Cheers!