The Seasoning House

The Seasoning House is a raw, powerful and, frankly, brilliant film. I recommend it, but it's not a date movie.

Hyett has clearly learnt a lot from his time on other film sets. The Seasoning House is a carefully crafted and controlled film which, at times, almost goes too far, but somehow manages to pull itself back from the brink. The direction is excellent, with Hyett infusing the first two acts with a slow, dreamlike, almost ethereal, feel that may reflect either Angel's resignation to the life that she now tolerates or the state of perpetual drug-based anaesthesia that the girls are constantly under.

Rosie Day is an absolute revelation. She is incredible as Angel and, although she doesn't utter a single word, her face tells us everything and we are never lost as to what Angel is feeling. It's notable that this is also Day's feature film debut. As such, and based on her performance here, I would expect to see a lot more of her in the future

The rest of the cast do a superb job. Willem Dafoe-alike Kevin Howarth is outstanding and tackles the role of Viktor with real conviction and we are torn between hating him (deservedly so) and as the film goes on, rooting for him. Sean Pertwee, as militia leader Goran, has never been more menacing, while Dominique Provost-Chalkley gives a brave performance as Vanya, especially considering all that the role entails.

It's bold cinema, make no mistake, and not a film to be taken lightly. Hyett's film is an uncompromising, unflinching and brutal glimpse into a real-life world of suffering that we, living out our comfortable little lives, simply cannot fathom and subsequently ignore. Hyett should be commended on making this film as honestly as this one. It's a film that sticks with you long after the credits have stopped rolling.

A powerful kick in the guts.

The first frame of the film reads '1996 - Balkans'. By that time the 'Dayton Agreement' had been signed, yet Slobodan Milosevic, the president of Socialist Republic of Serbia (Serbia, current) and Ratko Mladic (commander-in-chief of the Army of Republika Srpska) continued the ethnic cleansing by setting up 'sex camps' for the Serbian Army where twenty to fifty thousands of Bosniak (Bosnian Muslims) women were systematically raped to intimidate, humiliate and produce a generation of Serbs, all with a political agenda.

"The women knew the rapes would begin when 'Marš na Drinu' was played over the loudspeaker of the main mosque. 'Marš na Drinu,' or 'March on the Drina', is reportedly a former Chetnik fighting song that was banned during the Tito years.

"While 'Marš na Drinu' was playing, the women were ordered to strip and soldiers entered the homes taking the ones they wanted. The age of women taken ranged from 12 to 60. Frequently the soldiers would seek out mother and daughter combinations. Many of the women were severely beaten during the rapes." - Seventh Report on War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia: Part II, US submission of information to the United Nations Security Council.

This is a story of one such sex camp.

What I learned from Sarajevo was to stop complaining about anything.

What I took from the film is that it takes one tough cookie to absorb it all in and then explode with a vengeance in the enemy's face.

England's answer to Greg Nicotero moves away from the special make up effects and goes behind the camera to bring us this harrowing tale of Angel (Day, in a breath-taking debut), a girl ripped from her home during the war in the Balkans.

In war torn zones, military are kidnapping girls and selling them into the sex trade where they are sold to militia and civilians. Deaf and mute Angel is one of these girls who sees her mother murdered in front of her before being delivered to a brothel where she becomes the personal sex slave to its owner. A birthmark on her face makes her tainted goods so the owner, Viktor (Howarth), uses her to dope the girls with heroin to make them more amenable to their visitors, then clean them up afterwards. She spends her time away from the prying eyes of her captors crawling through the limited space of the ventilation system. Until an unplanned incident brings her head to head with the men who took her from her family.

Make no odds, The Seasoning House is not a comfortable watch but it is impossible to take your eyes from it. Based on true events of atrocities that happened during the war, Hyett brings us into a degenerate world of men willing to pay for sex with tied up, drugged women and pay extra to be rough with them. Some of the girls do not survive some of their "customers". The performances, especially from Day (watch out for her, she will be a name to take notice of) had to be good to make the film believable and to care about Angel. Howarth gives us a dark turn of a man just as at ease plunging a knife into the neck of a young girl to simply make a point as he is pouring a shot of whiskey.

Hyett builds a relationship between Angel and Viktor that enables the power dynamic between the two of them to change during the film. This is integral to some of the major turns in the story and needed to be handled delicately so as not to be too in your face about it but also sustain a sense of believability with the interaction of the two.

The Seasoning House is violent and gripping but never feels exploitative which was needed to ensure you retained a high level of empathy for Angel. It's hard to use the word enjoyed with this film but it is a superb piece of art that fully deserves wider recognition. If you get the chance and can stomach something more hard hitting than your usual Hollywood attempts and horror then I highly recommend this film.

A tragic tale of love, loss and death, this is one film you won't forget in a hurry.

With the Balkans war as setting this film begins very strong, mostly on the emotional side. In fact the initial scenes describing the terror of war crimes against unprotected and desperate people (mostly women and children) are brutal and tough (but very well done!). However, it's just the context to what is in fact a revenge film and a cat-mouse game. And if here the sides seem to be very disparate (strong military men against one single mute girl…) you know you should never despise your adversary and his weapons for little and inoffensive they might seem… It's a nice film that shows us the cruelty and sadism of wartimes! I score it 7/10.

"The Seasoning House" was really not what I had expected it to be from the movie cover. But I must say that I wasn't sorely disappointed that the movie turned out to be something other than what I had thought it to be.

This movie is brutal, not just visually, but also emotionally. Especially because the movie is shot the way that it is, and it is nicely edited. There is just something very realistic, albeit horrible nonetheless, to this movie, and that is really what makes "The Seasoning House" work out so well.

The story is about a group of young girls brought to a remote house, against their will, where they are forced into servitude and have to perform sexual acts for customers that frequent the house. The mute girl Angel (played by Rosie Day) works the house as a helper, also against her will, when fate brings those who killed her family to the house, and things spiral out of control, as fate deals Angel an unforeseen card.

Now, "The Seasoning House" is a very brutal movie, as I mentioned before. Visually because of the scenes portrayed and the horrors that take place in the house where the girls are kept as slaves, drugged and abused. And emotionally because of the events that unfold in the story, and also because the characters are characters you can relate to and very quickly build up some kind of empathy or antipathy for very quickly.

Director Paul Hyett managed to put together something really unique here, and this is definitely a movie that you need to watch. And once watched, it is most likely a movie that will stick with you for a long time afterwards.

The cast were doing great jobs, although the English language with a pseudo-Eastern European accent wasn't really doing the trick. But it was a minor inconvenience, because the rest of the movie overshadowed this flaw.

"The Seasoning House" is well worth watching, despite it being rather grotesque in its story and imagery. But it just goes to prove that movies doesn't all have to be glamor and happy days...