Trance

The weirdest thing about this odd little movie is that its labelled a remake of The Mummy (1932) (And subsequent remakes).

But instead of a mummy we have a witch.

And instead of Egypt it's Ireland.

And instead of being good, its terrible.

Starring Christopher Walken and Jared Harris, even a decent cast couldn't turn this one around.

The plot is thoroughly confuddled, the script is dire and the only thing that the movie has going for it is the finale but even that is recycled.

The Eternal (Otherwise known as Trance) is a hard one to pigeon hole. It's not exactly a traditional horror, more a supernatural thriller maybe?

One thing is for sure, the movie isn't as smart as the creators clearly thought it was and falls under the category of instantly forgettable.

The Good:

Walken and Harris do fine

The Bad:

Messy score/soundtrack

Walken is wasted

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Getting knocked out twice within the space of a few minutes has to have a lasting impact right?

Saw a trailer for this on another video, and decided to rent when it came out. Boy, was I disappointed! The story is extremely boring, the acting (aside from Christopher Walken) is bad, and I couldn't care less about the characters, aside from really wanting to see Nora's husband get thrashed. Christopher Walken's role is such a throw-away, what a tease!

I watched 'Trance' on the strength of Almereyda's arty vampire flick 'Nadja' and the presence of Christopher Walken, a great favourite of mine. I shouldn't have bothered. The movie starts off interestingly enough with the New York sequences, and the all-too-brief appearance of the late Jason Miller ('The Exorcist'/'The Ninth Configuration'), but as soon as they hit Ireland, it all goes rapidly downhill.

To add insult to injury, Walken's role is basically nothing more than a glorified cameo! Bigger than 'Sleepy Hollow' say, nothing to get your teeth into. I've liked Jared Harris in the past, in 'Happiness' and yes, 'Nadja', but he's quite poor in places here, as is the main female lead who I wasn't familiar with.

Overall, mediocre and unsuccessful in holding your attention. I actually nodded off at one stage, which is always a warning sign! A major disappointment when compared with the potential Almereyda showed with 'Nadja'. Even 'Cherry 2000' is better!!

A good cast and they do their best with what they're given, but the story makes no sense, the characters' actions are inexplicable, and there are too many moments of unintentional humor, as when a man is killed by being pierced with pieces of a phonograph record or when they get the witch drunk to a hip hop beat and then hit her over the head with a bottle and she grabs her hostage and pouts off. The scene when the two witch and her victim (played by the same actress) are in the house together sets up like a 3 Stooges routine, and the plot begs the question: if the witch wants to possess this other woman's soul, why doesn't she just do it instead of leading these people on this elaborate chase? Not to be missed is Christopher Walkin's eyeglasses and his automotive explanation of the afterlife (paraphrased): "The ancient Egyptianas - they wee materialists. They expected the body to last through eternity, like a used car that you souped up. But the Druids, they knew you couldn't drive in the afterlife. You had to get out and walk." Huh? The ending is absolutely indecipherable. Seems like they just ran out of film.

A very interesting story. I think this film could have been so much more with a bigger budget. In my opinion, this was a very marketable movie idea with not enough financial backing. I would have liked to have seen more of Christopher Walken and even more chilling special effects throughout. The dialogue was a little dry, but was saved by the great cast. This movie is worth seeing at least once. It would have been better to see on the big screen but was only released direct-to-video in the U.S.