End of the Line

Just (and I mean literally, just) saw this at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was preceded by a really creepy first-person handicam short film (The Eyes of Edward James), which had me shaking even before End started.

Suffice it to say, the film did not disappoint. It helps not to know much about the movie, but the key plot points are: * Death & * The Subway

Canadian viewers will get a kick out of the TTC and Montreal Metro shots (and have a fun time taking public transit home), and pretty much anyone will be freaked out about taking the subway after watching it.

The only complaint I would make is it was about 30 minutes and a few characters too long. There was a bit too much characterisation and conversation, and it slowed the plot down - though I'm quick to add that it never went too long before a scary/exciting part picked up again. If this is going to see major release though, they'll definitely need to cut it - anything over 2h is already too much, and this movie definitely didn't need that extra stuff.

One final warning: It is exceedingly gory. I have not seen so much blood and graphic violence in a long time. And it'll scare you.

I'm a sucker for horror movies and watch about every one I can get near of. That usually leads to a lot of bad movie-watching. So I consider myself fairly educated in the ways of horror movies.

This movie was such a surprise to me. I had expected the typical people-going-crazy formula, but I found that there was more than that. It was interesting because of the religious reason for the craziness. I have a degree in religious studies and I found this formula very accurate.

Another great thing about this movie is that you feel sympathy with all the "good" characters and really hope that everyone gets out alive. Even through we all know that this rarely happens in horror movies.

The movie's atmosphere makes the movie work very well. No, it's not the world's greatest script and the direction is surely not perfect, men it works and is entertaining until the very end.

I really recommend this film to every horror fan.

I just saw EOTL at the Palm Springs film festival, and I'm very pleased (the guy above would be also be pleased to know that this version was shortened to 95 minutes). It was the rare horror movie that did the fundamental thing right: made you care about the victims. Everyone, even the crazy cultists, was given layers and dimensions beyond surface stereotypes and caricatures (no token black-nerd-ditzy blonde-tough guy-final girl lineup here) This is also probably the only movie I've seen that's actually scary along with having graphic gore. The gore scenes themselves aren't scary, but they are intense, because they are happening to people that you've invested some emotion in. I'm also glad that the demon effects were used sparingly; Devereaux knows that real live crazy people can be much scarier. The atmosphere contributed greatly to this; I've always found scenes of people standing alone in those subway stations pretty creepy (best example: the scene with the Asian girl and the train. Those who've seen the movie will know what I'm talking about) The acting was top-notch across the board, my palms were actually sweating because I wanted at least most of the main cast to make it out alive. The special effects were not-surprisingly excellent; look for a nasty half-decapitation as a great example. Like I said before, it was good that the demons were rarely seen, but when they were, they were very well-done (aside from a few CGI ones, but they had to be in order to pull off certain stunts) Overall, I can give End of the Line the best praise for a horror movie: it does what it meant to do.

Karen is a nurse at a psychiatric hospital whose been having nightmares of jump scares recently(and yeah, those do make a lot of appearances in this... but it does build a proper atmosphere, and is a very tense ride). On her way home, the subway train she's on stops suddenly, and she and a group of other regular people find themselves chased by a cult(who are genuinely and effectively creepy, throughout; they make this, in part, a zombie flick) out for blood, who claim that judgment day is coming(and that death is the better fate). Is this just a band of mad believers, or could they actually be right? This keeps it vague enough that you continue to ask yourself that question throughout, right up until the great ending. It goes into themes about faith(without it saying that it's completely good or bad), religious fanaticism(how far will they go?), hypocrisy, status and the like. This is somewhat exploitative(with some truly brutal gore, and extremely disturbing sequences, if these are moderate in amount), and it gets quite cheesy(the killers all use crosses that function as knives, and one of them, a middle-aged guy no less, wields a friggin' sword). It doesn't overstay its welcome, and keeps to a solid pace, and it gets going quickly whilst at the same time developing the characters, all of whom are sufficiently likable and credible(no one is really obnoxious, albeit one member of the murdering lot is truly despicable... but we love to hate him, and it really works). The FX vary, however most are excellent(a couple of designs and choices are questionable). This is at its best in the first 20 minutes or so, and if you find yourself not happy with the change after about that period of time, you might not like the rest of this. It does feel like the two portions of it don't completely fit together. The hour and a half do pass like nothing, and it has positive surprises along the way. Dialog tends to be fine, if there are a handful of lines that are... strange. Acting is so-so. There's a reason those on this cast aren't "names". There is some sexuality and a little strong language in this. I recommend this to fans of dark Gothic horror. 7/10

Horror movies can be fun, can be exciting or can be something to think about. This tries to check many boxes. And depending on how open you are and if you care for certain things (and also the fact you have to keep record and think for yourself and what certain things mean) ... it'll play out one way or the other for you.

So either you'll have a good experience watching this or you won't. The director himself says, you decide what it means, I won't tell you. Not that he doesn't have an opinion or hasn't layed out clues. But again, that's not everyone's cup of tea. So this is decent and has good horror moments, but the over the top acting (some may feel this is an exaggeration) will alienate some viewers ...