Shadow Builder

Based on a lesser-known story by Bram Stoker, the film follows the classic occult or satanic horror narrative, where a demon is unleashed and threatens a rural town, filled with religious references to give it authenticity. Father Vassey (Michael Rooker) is a supernatural hunter who must face a dark entity that takes the form of a shadow (hence the title of the story and the film) but gradually takes shape as it absorbs human souls. While the film presents interesting reflections on light and darkness and contains some chilling moments, the plot is hindered by an overabundance of secondary characters and unnecessary twists, diluting the film's central focus. Nevertheless, the performances of Rooker and Tony Todd stand out, though the ending may provoke more laughter than tension. Despite never reaching its full potential, it has enough interesting elements to make for an entertaining watch.

A cult of followers of the evil Shadowbuilder summons the demon using the picture of the son of the scumbag Vic Lambert (Eric Murphy). The group is surprised by Father Vassey (Michael Rooker) that kills the followers but Shadowbuilder escapes to Grand River, a town that will experience an eclipse on the next day. Father Vassey heads to the town and discovers that the demon's target is Chris Hatcher (Kevin Zegers), a boy that caused an stigmata in the image of Christ in his baptism that is raised by his aunt Jenny (Leslie Hope). Shadowbuilder brings chaos to Grand River to collect souls and becomes power. Meanwhile, Father Vassey teams up with the local Sheriff Sam Logan (Shawn Thompson) that is Jenny's boyfriend and together they try to protect Chris and destroy the powerful demon.

I saw "Shadowbuilder" in the late 90's and today I have watched again on DVD. The storyline is great but the screenplay is only reasonable considering the potential of the story and the cast. The boy is Kevin Zegers in the beginning of his career. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Shadowbuilder - O Senhor das Sombras" ("Shadowbuilder – The Lord of the Darkness")

Get the ingredients for a little made b-film and throw Bram Stocker in as inspiration for the story. A demonic force is summoned to take the soul of a young boy who could become a saint and if done it could open a doorway to hell. However this entity can only travel through shadows and needs to collect souls to complete this task. But on its trail is Father Vassey, who's heading to this sleepy rural town to find the boy first. The occult horror "Shadow Builder" is an adaptation of a Stocker story and the screenplay only seems to muddled it up with half-baked theories, as it leans towards its cheesy special effects, nasty shocks and poignant performances led by Michael Rooker's grizzled renegade priest who gets around with pistols than say a bible and Tony Todd as some loony giggling Jamaican hermit that kids are afraid of. Actually "Shadow Builder" isn't all that bad, but in parts it's fairly amusing and surprisingly dark in its atmospherics. The opening scenes are actually quite fun. Over-the-top and silly, but fun especially seeing Rooker at work in his choice of repenting sinners. The demonic entity has some striking facial details, but basically it's black CGI smoke and like most villainous horror characters has something cleverly smart to say. With this last point, I thought it would have been better suited if it said nothing at all. The direction is rather stylised for its low- budget, but the plot doesn't meander much and it has enough thrills in its formulaic patterns of good vs. evil… or light vs. darkness. A young Kevin Zegers stars as the kid caught in the middle of it all.

"Are you truly repentant?"

Shadow Builder isn't more or less than an average horror-movie with average actors and average special FX. It is not especially bad but it isn't very good either. The story of an evil demon who needs to do something very bad (kill a young boy) to reach his goal (turn the world into hell)isn't exactly original but it's good for 97 minutes of entertainment. The story is highly predictable, though. You almost know exactly what will happen and when it will happen. Don't watch this movie if you expect to see a cool horror movie like Bram Stoker's Dracula only because the name Bram Stoker appears in the title. Watch this movie on a boring, rainy day when you have nothing else to do and you'll enjoy it. 6 out of 10 Stars.

For a low budget Canadian film, 'Bram Stoker's Shadowbuilder' is pretty good. Though it doesn't get off to a very good start and takes a while to build up momentum, it's massively entertaining, and the production values are better than the gimmicky, error plagued box cover suggests (I'll get to that in a minute). It might not be the greatest horror film ever, but it avoids several pitfalls which most low budget horrors fall for, most namely there is almost no gore in the film, and the director/editor actually threw in some style and flash, rather than the suspense less "suspense" 99% of those B Horrors have (gotta love that effect when Chris first lays eyes on the priest).

The acting is mediocre for the most part, with only one of the characters played well. Michael Rooker, as the gun wielding priest, tries to do his best Donald Pleasance impression, but fails, and ultimately resembles Pleasance's Dr Loomis from the Halloween films much too closely. The rest of the supporting cast is made up pretty much of Canadian nobodies who get the job done, but just aren't all that great. The flicks' protagonist, Chris Hatcher, is played by 13 year old newcomer Kevin Zegers, who handles the part surprisingly well, not making Chris obnoxious or arrogant like most child stars would (and have done many, many times). Instead he goes the much harder route by creating a genuinely interesting character, subtle and low key, much like the film itself.

Even though the producers had access to the special effects wizards behind 'True Lies' and 'The Terminator', they opted instead for the more traditional style of special effects, utilizing lighting, shadows and a very spooky atmosphere rather than heaping on the CG (computer generated) effects. The CG that did end up making it into 'Shadowbuilder' is very impressive and much better than that of even the highest profile direct to video thrillers.

One subplot I really thought should have been expanded on and furthered was the friendship between Chris and his two friends. There was only one scene with the three together, and though it had a different 'feel' from the rest of the film (it would have seemed more at home in a drama than a horror film), that scene was probably the best up until the climax. His two friends do appear later in the movie after they had been possessed by the Shadowbuilder, and it seemed as though Chris had known them better than was explained in the story. I know I'm rambling, but it really does look like some heavy editing occurred before release that shouldn't have happened.

The biggest problem with the movie is the lackluster script. Much of the dialogue is cheesy and unrealistic, and the way that the Shadowbuilder came into being was never fully explained. How was it summoned? What did the bible (which is referred to often in the story) have to do with it? Why was Chris so special and why did he receive the stigmata when baptized? It are these questions that the audience asks themselves over and over again while viewing this film, and if they were properly answered, then I would be reviewing a much better film.

Another thing I wanted to point out was the awful, awful packaging that the VHS version comes in (not sure about the DVD edition, as it was released by a different distributor, Sterling Entertainment- VHS was done by Lion's Gate). Not only does it have a cheesy, holographic front cover ala Jack Frost (not the Michael Keaton version), and there is an obvious typo error on the back- millennium is shown there as millenium, but it looks as though the person who wrote the summary didn't even see the movie! There is a major error which stands out like a sore thumb after seeing 'Shadowbuilder', see if you can find it (hint: has to do with Leslie Hope's character)

An entertaining horror film with a bit of humor mixed in, though it does have its share of problems, a good pick for late Friday night... full moon... 13th of the month... solar eclipse... rent it if you can get a copy, otherwise don't bother.