Boromir007

This is probably one of the best movies by the legendary production company Hammer. It is a special one as well, this time Christopher Lee is casted as the hero, and he proves to be a terrific hero as well. So what about the villain? Charles Gray appears to be an excellent choice. The rest of the cast is alright, but nothing special really. The film has the typical atmosphere all Hammer films have, mainly thanks to its locations, director Terence Fisher and composer James Bernard. Most of Hammers best concerned classic monsters like Dracula or the Frankenstein monster or the Mummy, but this time the plot is more than just a monster story, the characters have to face devil worshipers and their diabolic rituals. Although the special effects are rather dated, they still have a massive impact. So in the end I can't come up with a negative point, which leaves me with only positive comments about this film.

I went to see this film with a couple of friends yesterday and I have to say I didn't really liked it, in fact I can't understand how people could like it. First of all this film creates a very wrong image of Europe and Europeans. The storyline is simplistic and the only thing that isn't predictable is how disgusting the next scene is going to be. It is also very unrealistic, many aspects just don't make sense (you won't run back into a horrible place after you escaped from it just because someone is screaming, would you.) Except for Jan Vlasák the acting was awfully weak, especially by the two Amererican lead actors (although they only have to be high or run around screaming.). I think director Eli Roth isn't really talented because the only thing he is able of is creating a claustrophobic atmosphere during the torture scenes. But I have to say that Nathan Barr his soundtrack was pretty good. And the film does show the darker side of the human being, but they could have done that with some good dialog and a little bit of gore and not the other way around, because now they kinda lost their believability. I only recommend this film to people who enjoy excessive gore and really don't care about an intelligent story.