Archons

I had high hopes for this film - Nick Szostakiwskyj's previous offering, *Black Mountain Side*, is a criminally underrated folk horror. But there's no story here, no continuity or coherence, no attempt to explore the mythology. I'm still not entirely sure what I just watched.

Edit: It is better on a second watch, but only slightly. Yes, it's beautifully shot. Yes, the audio is great. Yes, the actors are on point. I guess I either wanted to know more about the nature of the threat or see less of it.

I'm actually kind of annoyed. At the beginning of the film I said "wow even if nothing happens I could look at the scenery the whole time and still be pleased." That is until I started really desiring to know the whole mystery and honestly there was no actual ending. There was no question answered. The movie made no sense, the characters were terrible actors and their interactions more frustrating than not knowing what was happening in the storyline. I'm pretty lenient with movies but this was just a very pretty turd. Gorgeous scenery, the characters seemingly looked their parts, it should've been fairly easy but no. The effects were terrible too, from the monsters to the headless wooden dummy sitting in the shower. Yeah I saw that wooden hand, we all did.... Disappointing considering the director previously made a movie alot of people really likes. I expected better. And you should too. Very slow burn, very frustrating to watch.

I usually rate movies worse than the IMDb rating, this is one of the more glaring exceptions. I liked Black Mountain Side from the director and this one is in the same slow building atmospheric Lovecraft subgenre. It's not perfect, actors and pacing could have been better, but Szostakiwskyj creates a one of a kind mood, I very much enjoy, especially in the later half of the movie. I really hope we get more films of this kind from him!

If your into isolated location/horror strange creature films and accept these types of films for what they are, then this is defiantly worth a watch, i quite enjoyed it.

If you expect oscar winning acting from every film and are the sort of person to pick at small things, probaly not for you.

This movie just made me realise that evangelicals, scientologists, and dominionists are all gnostics, even the cult I grew up in and people who believe in the illuminati and aliens. What a permeating thread throughout history. Demons suppressing human and testing them in life and death. What a superstitious world we live in. Carl Sagan was right. Science is a candle in the demon haunted world.

A simple story of dead rockstars in a horrid limbo. I liked it.