11-11: Les portes de l'enfer

i hired this movie out from my local movie shop, not really expecting anything to flash or fancy. Since it was a "B" grade movie, made on a very tight budget. The opening scenes of the film were rather original and so was the plot and thats what made me hire the movie out. However the film becomes very boring and frustrating at points. The story had plenty of holes in it and the acting had its fair share of disappointments as well By the end of the film i was praying that a higher power was going to strike me down where i laid as i was extremely bored but more importantly frustrated with how the story turned out. i still don't understand what actually happened and i don't particularly care. in conclusion the devil would cry in disgust to know that Hell (his domain ) was used as a basis for such a crappy film.

I'm 2/3 of the way through this movie and I had to take a break. The intensity of each shot coupled with the surreality of the plot line makes me wish it weren't getting dark outside. I am not a fan of slash-em-up horror movies, but this one intrigued me. It reminds me of the terror Exorcist instilled in me while watching. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for an intense movie, just don't watch it alone. The lead actress does an incredible job at conveying multiple levels of consciousness, which makes the plot and every scene that much more believable. I'll leave it at that and finish once the movie's finished.

The interweaving of prophesy, the supernatural, and incredible direction here is mind- boggling. While the supporting actors, especially the short lived ones, leave a little to be desired in terms of ability, it can be overlooked in the scope of this film. My only wish is that it had gone on longer.

Good lord! This movie needs to have a new classification on its cover "watch only if you have absolutely nothing else to do!". I am disappointed. I was looking forward to a good horror movie over the weekend...needed an adrenalin rush and that awesome tingling sensation going down my spine. But this movie didn't do it. A reasonably good story but pretty awful acting, dialogue, and filming. It was disjointed and sometimes outright silly. We had actors looking at the wrong direction of the camera, people talking out loud (by themselves) and narrating what they feel and what is going to happen, shadows of equipment in some shots, silly clichés like "I just need you to hold me" in the totally wrong places and situations. Thank you for allowing me to offload and sorry if I'd offended anybody but it was a waste of time and money.

There has always been a big difference between American horror and Asian horror. American horror is mostly very bloody (slice & dice) or about scary monsters, insects etc. and a bunch of shocking effects that will let you jump out of your chair. But what scares me the most of Asian horror is the intensity of it. It grabs you by the throat and makes you sleep very bad... They start very slow and builds op the fear, which keeps you very alert because you are prepared for a shocking effect. The cinematic quality doesn't meet the standards of the American movies (which mostly have a very large budget...), but it is not the ultimate special effects, or the great performance of actors the makes a movie really worth seeing. I've seen low budget movies that are much much better than blockbusters which have costed millions of dollars. OK very bad acting and a lot of movie mistakes or a really unrealistic script can kill a movie. But if a movie is so intense that you can think of nothing else while watching and it stays in your head the hours or even days after seeing it, I think it is a real good movie, despite of some mistakes or bad cinematic quality... Now about this movie, the reason why I started with this introduction is that I think this movie is really intense. It has some horror effects I recognise in the assign horror movies I've seen (the eye, dark water, Ju-On etc). The cinematic quality is not so good, but the intensity makes up for that. For instance the scene at the library was superb !! If you have seen it you know what I am talking about comparing it to Asian horror...

For me this is what horror is about, not a lot of blood and scary monsters (most of these movies are funny instead of scary) , but so intense that you can feel the fear of the character(s) and let you sympathize with them thinking what you would do in that situation.

By the time that this film had reached it's conclusion, I had acquired an almost overpowering urge to scoop my eyes out with a dull, rusty spoon, and through the bloody sockets, gouge at my brain in an effort to excoriate the memory center.

I didn't find the lead actress's performance to be as poor or torporous, as had some others. Rather, it was the story itself. It seemed like the director couldn't make his mind up which way to go with the delivery of the plot. The ending totally sucked. A deal is struck between Sara, the main character, and Raden, her imaginary friend... or is she a demon... or a ghost... or an angel... who knows? In any event, Raden tells Sara that if she shoots Seth, Sara's aide de camp throughout the movie, she can go free. If Sara doesn't shoot Seth, she had to go with Raden. Sara opts not to shoot Seth, and is shown walking off with Raden. Two seconds later, she is shown standing there with the muzzle of a pistol pressed against Seth's forehead, and then she shoots him... and goes off with Raden anyway. Then Raden tells Sara that no one can avoid their fate.

If Sara was doomed to go off with Raden no matter what she did, what was the point of having to shoot Seth or not? The whole sequence diminishes and sort of noble sacrifice that Sara might have made in not shooting Seth. She was doomed either way, whether she shot him or not. This movie was not a complete waste of time; it was only about 98% of a complete waste of time. My brain still hurts from having watched it.