The Shrine

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.

Yes, the script is kinda cheesy. Yes, the actors are blandly pretty. Yes, the characters do annoyingly dumb things in the woods. But there are some pretty decent aspects to "The Shrine" that make it worth the 90-odd minutes out of your life time to watch it.

First of all, it's not as entirely stupid as 99.9999% of horror movies currently in release. Early on there are some sequences which are, though derivative of J-horror, at least nicely scary. There's a very well done mid-movie change up and an ending that actually doesn't make you want to throw up your hands in disgust.

Faint praise, I know. But compared to the brain dead gore porn masquerading as horror films these days, this film's attempt to generate some real scares seems almost revolutionary by comparison. "The Shrine" is, at the very least, a pretty fair port in a storm of Hollywood crap.

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.

The action of Canadian horror flick "The Shrine" takes place in a small Polish village of Kozki,where several young Americans vanished without a trace.The story of various disappearances is the main interest of Carmen,a young fame and money-hungry journalist.She and her assistant Sara and her photographer boyfriend Marcus travel to Poland to solve the mystery.The locals in Kozki are not friendly and there is an esoteric cult which practices blood sacrifices and has leaders shouting litanies in laughably bad Polish.The portrayal of Polish villagers in "The Shrine" is obnoxious and downright silly,but being Polish I had a total blast watching this crappy horror extravaganza.The story owes a lot to Robin Hardy's "The Wicker Man" and mushroom trip like visions of demonic faces are quite creepy.The soundtrack is minimalistic and there is a bit of great gore.7 angry Poles out of 10.

A hard-nosed journalist, Carmen (Cindy Sampson, Supernatural), her boyfriend, Marcus (Aaron Ashmore, Smallville), and an intern, Sara (Meghan Heffern, Almost Heroes), travel to Alvania to investigate the disappearance of Eric Taylor, the last person of many reported to have vanished after visiting the small Polish village. In the distance is a large patch of dense fog hovering above the forest, the same phenomenon documented in Eric's journal. The three of them make their way to the woods, only to be confronted by a group of men who dissuade the trio to proceed any further.

However, Carmen convinces Marcus and Sara to examine the fog following a confession that her boss thinks she and Sara are back in the states covering a scoop on bees. Her career is ruined if she doesn't return with a killer story. Sara enters the fog first and then Carmen, while Marcus stays just beyond the fog's edge. At different times, both women stumble upon a menacing statue, seemingly serving no purpose other than to scare the bejesus out of anyone who has the misfortune to encounter it.

After fleeing the fog, all three are hunted down by the same men who warned them to leave. Marcus is forced by gunpoint to dig his own grave while Carmen and Sara are brought to a secret sacrificial chamber, stripped of all of their clothing and made to wear the same white gown that they found the deceased Eric dressed in. This is the point of the movie where I almost shut it off, presuming it to be another torture porn flick. That may be your thing but it's not mine.

It turns out that this low-budget horror movie written and directed by Jon Knautz is a well-crafted thriller with better acting than most of its genre, with the exception of Ashmore who appears really damn angry about everything throughout the entire film. The build is slow but those who have the tenacity to stick it through will be rewarded. This is sincerely a creepy movie with the right amounts of fright and gore.

Speaking of gore, there are a couple of scenes in particular that may give you the dry heaves if you're not a horror veteran but if you can handle a film like the The Ruins, you can survive The Shrine. I'd endorse this flick to mainstream audiences who want to watch a horror movie now and then to experience some cheap scares without sex/nudity/torture.