The Shrine

An excellent premis for a movie, but the execution was terribly average. The dialogue and acting was sub-par in most cases, but the visual effects and set design balanced that out a little. The movie fell apart in the third act, in which it resembles more of an exorcism movie rather than a horror movie centred around a Polish cult.

A decent one to chuck on with a beer and a couple of bongs. The ritual scenes were particularly fun and interesting to watch.

TLDR: Some scenes were fun, but overall an average movie. 5/10

I wasn't expecting much when I sat down to watch "The Shrine". The premise looked all too familiar in a sea of excruciatingly bad horror titles. The opening scenes did little to quash my suspicions, however, I decided to stick it out and go for broke. I'm actually really glad I did.

There is very little contrived material here. The film sets up it's story and moves forward convincingly. While some of the dialog tends to border on silliness, a rather strong cast is able to deliver it in a believable fashion, which, along with the top notch cinematography, sets "The Shrine" apart from it's contemporaries. Yes, the Polish accents were brutal, as were the ceremonial robes, however the suspenseful scene direction more then makes up for it. It's one of those films, where as, you don't really care all that much about the characters, but you really dig what the film is doing with them. It's easy entertainment, and sometimes that's all it takes.

No, this is not a film that is destined for cult status or a franchise tag, but it is an enjoyable little horror film that reminds us of why we love this genre… Because it's fun.

I'll get this right out of the way - this movie didn't grab me at first. The first act has some problems with dialogue delivery and generally unlikeable characters.. but I gave the film time, and it really started to win me over. Some out-of-place CG fog notwithstanding, this is a very fun effort from the JACK BROOKS MONSTER SLAYER team (though I like Jack Brooks more). Partway through I started to care about everyone more, and by the end the film totally won me over. The last act is a ton of gory fun, feeling like a hybrid of The Exorcist, Rec 2 and The Evil Dead. Great practical make-up work. See this, I fully recommend.

I think the part that got me most is when the main characters asked the little girl if she heard of America, and she responded by saying "Cheesburgers?". I mean, what is this, 1960 cold war Romania? What was with those outfits? They looked more like 1800 style American farm dresses. I think if I were Polish, I would be insulted. If there were actually any people left in Poland still wearing traditional outfits in some small town, at least get some idea of what one looks like. I cannot believe that a film maker who gets funds to produce a movie does not take the time to do one days worth of research that would make a movie more authentic(forgetting the fact that even in the smallest town in Poland, they wear jeans). Besides that, the movie was poorly acted, though it did have some scary moments.

A couple of American journalists go to a small Eastern European village to investigate the mysterious death of a colleague.

Initially it seems like this might be another "Hostel" torture/gore type flick, but things are not what they appear in the first two-thirds of the movie. The director of Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer helmed this, and he has a good grasp of the genre.

What I liked was the straightforward plot device that is revealed at the conclusion. Pay close attention to what happens around the 32 minute mark because that's the basis for everything that follows.

The movie is fairly low budget, so don't go in looking for fantastic special effects, but they are serviceable. Also, this is not a keep-you-up-at-night type horror movie. It's more so the type that makes you think "What would I have done differently" to avoid what happened to these ppl.