After destroying a deadly demon, a royal family trying to guard the release of the demon to continue a horrific curse on their lineage learns the daughter and her friends are heading to the area to investigate the claims and inadvertently awaken the demonic entity locked away forcing them to stop it.
There's quite a lot to like with this one. Among the more impressive aspects to it is the grand backstory that manages to incorporate plenty of likable elements into the story. Involving plenty of fun with the story involving the original means of the curse being inflicted against them due to the opening prologue featuring the race to capture him and detailing what type of demonic being he is before being put to death with the curse over the family, this starts with a rather intriguing starting point. By then tying this with the incorporation of the demonic entity resurrected to take the family down and forcing the relative to capture it before the curse that strikes his family throughout the generations which comes into play here with the current generation aware of everything that's transpired and determined to prevent the demonic entity from being released. This includes the treatment towards the boyfriend who's an outsider and unaware of what's going on and the resulting trip to the fateful location to ensure the storyline comes off well-integrated overall. With the introduction of their trip out to the palace to put an end to the curse once and for all, the switch into more ethereal and ardent genre territory becomes rather fun. The mindset of the curse playing heed to their journey makes the attack on the father or their struggles to reach the location start on a nice note, while the Gothic ambiance that occurs once they arrive sets this off on a chilling note. The investigation through the fog-shrouded countryside that allows for creepy visions and hallucinations to play out is a fine touch as that carries over into the continuing visions she has the longer they stay where the distorted face of the demonic entity appears to her over and over in various places. When it finally dawns on everyone what's going on as the body is stolen and reunited with the severed head, the film picks up considerably with the action in the finale as the reborn figure attacks the house which leaves this one with a frantic race to stop him involving a series of elaborate dances and rituals to control his power once and for all. Overall, these all make for a solid genre outing, even though this one does have a few drawbacks holding it down. One of the main factors with it is the unnecessary use of including the third storyline about the best friend making a deal with the criminal to keep escaping custody of the village tribe looking to secure his punishment for numerous crimes around the village. This serves no purpose in the film with the characters not needing to be featured at all for not interacting with the main cast, offer up nothing but cringe-inducing attempts at comedy with the mugging, exaggerated voices, and comic misunderstandings, and the sheer incompetence of the criminal is matched only by the incompetence of the village who fail to catch him. That they can't spot what's going on with the constant rescues and attempts to return him for more money makes little sense, and in the end, all it does is drag the running time out by featuring this unnecessary subplot. The other slight issue here is the seemingly bizarre means of acceptance that goes on with how the boyfriend is brought on board with the curse as the entire first half is spent getting him away from her only to accept him out of nowhere after witnessing them on a date so their sudden reversal makes for a bizarre change of behavior to what's been established. Otherwise, there's not much holding this down.
Rated Unrated/R: Violence and Language.
