The Windmill Massacre

Call me a sentimentalist, but I really love it when countries bring forward movies that are somehow linked to their own heritage, culture or fauna! For example, I love it when Australia makes another movie about a giant killer crocodile, or when Austria releases a splatter flick about Lederhosen zombies, and I was really excited when I found out that The Netherlands was going to bring out a folklore horror movie about windmills! I'm not a Dutchman myself, but I live next door in Belgium and spent a lot of time traveling around in The Netherlands. The country is full of windmills and, especially when you drive past them when night is falling, they often look eerie and sinister out there in the open fields, so it's about freaking time they finally form the decor of a horror movie! Of course I'm slightly biased, and I probably awarded the film with at least one more point than it deserves, but "The Windmill Massacre" is good entertainment with a more than adequate screenplay, above average performances, a reasonable amount of suspense and quite a lot of exhilarating gore and bloodshed!

First and foremost, the film rather cleverly solves a typical issue that Dutch speaking productions always struggle with! It sounds horrible when Dutch or Belgian actors/actresses attempt to speak English, so instead of that, "The Windmill Massacre" almost exclusively stars native English speakers that are supposedly tourists in Amsterdam. That's just smart, period! Following a whole bunch of separate clips that only start making sense later in the film, 7 people (an Aussie girl, a former model, an Asian student, a mariner, a surgeon and a British father with his teenage son) board a ramshackle tour bus that takes them on a trip past several idyllic windmills. The bus naturally breaks down, but when two courageous passengers head towards a nearby windmill for help, they painfully experience that the miller – Hendrik – is a nastily deformed and bloodthirsty type of avenging demon. This group wasn't coincidentally put together, as it turns out they all have committed horrible sins and now they have to pay for them. For a horror flick from The Netherlands, "The Windmill Massacre" has a solid and compelling story to tell (especially in comparison to other recent titles like "Dood Eind" or "De Poel"), and you'll even gladly overlook the rather many clichés and improbabilities in the script. The film also features loads of gratifying gore and delightful make- up effects. Hendrik, the deadly miller, looks like a hybrid between Jason Voorhees and the Chatterer Cenobite from the original "Hellraiser". There's a cool urban legend linked to his existence (something about selling his soul to the devil) and enjoys things like stomping people's heads with his boots or throwing rusty chains in people's faces. Good, unpretentious entertaining Holland should be proud of!

Reminding me heavily of Reeker (2005) this neat little horror is well made but sadly makes very little sense.

Telling the story of a number of people who get aboard a tour of Holland but become stranded and under attack from an unseen enemy who seems to know their darkest secrets.

The idea is quite clever, the execution is solid but where it fails is the execution and wide quantity of plot holes and unexplained events.

I wanted to like this and was certainly impressed with the quality but just couldn't get past certain head scratching moments.

Perfectly watchable stuff but it is the very definition of take your brain out entertainment.

The Good:

Decent kills

Well made

The Bad:

Plenty of plot holes

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

When hiring a nanny employees will not do an extensive background check

That kid will need SO much therapy

My quick rating - 5,4/10. This flick seems to attempt to touch upon quite a few genres at once and does so somewhat successfully. The movie is about the struggle of being taken to hell by a grim reaper type character which is explained within the movie. Each character is being judged due to their sins of the past which unfold in a flashback type way. The story itself is played out quite well albeit completely full of holes. The supernatural aspect seems to come and go and never really solidifies itself. The acting is average, no complaints or applause. When they do head down the gore route, it is poured on well without being the focal point of the film. I found it interesting enough to hold my attention and although I could see a never ending amount of sequels possible (which the ending says, not me) I hope they leave it alone. An above average flick if even slightly which is fine.

If you want an Australian accent, cast an Australian. Not an English girl who's accent changes back to British every 2 seconds and sometimes sounds like she's from NZ?

It took away from the movie SO BADLY - I loved the premise and found it interesting but man, her accent really ruined it. That's coming from an Aussie who knows we don't sound like that 😂

The rather blandly named, The Windmill Massacre, breaks the golden rule of a good slasher flick and pays the price.

Let me start by saying this is a film with definite potential. Its far from utterly bad. It employs a good cast of capable actors, a rather novel and fresh premise, plus some good horror elements. That said, it breaks the key rule of any good slasher flick, its not all that scary.

Th reason The Windmill Massacre is not overly scary lies in its scripting. After the first death, there's very little uncertainty as to who, how and when the next person, will die. Indeed, there is a "lead in", that tells you for the most part, whats about to happen to who, next.

The net result is a film robbed of the sudden death, "jump in your seat", surprise factor. That's what good slashers are really all about. Not the final dispatch but the dread and tension, leading up to that suddenly and violently realized moment, when the killer strikes.

Its a shame too, as this film looked promising. Even making a second film may not solve this issue, as the approach taken is more or less, "locked in". That is, its intrinsic to the legend built around the killer. As it stands then, a moderately entertaining horror film, that offers some entertainment value, but could have been so much more. Six out of ten from me.