User reviews

When a young soldier leaves for a mountain biking excursion he meets the girl of his dreams as well a group of violent locals who want to see them dead at any cost.

What really attracted me to this film was seeing Fabrizio Bava as assistant director. Bava, as you may guess, is the son of Lamberto Bava and the grandson of Mario Bava. To see a third generation of horror films directed by the Bava clan is quite a treat. Not saying this is a great film (it really is just so-so), but I am still happy to see the tradition continue.

The best part of this film is the villain, a toad-licking Lord Voldemort. He looks as if Doug Jones played Buffalo Bill playing Ingmar Bergman's Death. Throw some Nazi symbolism in there for good measure. A great villain, both creepy and mysterious, not to mention senselessly vicious.

The sad thing is that while the film is alright once it gets going, it just cannot keep the momentum. As always, I cannot talk about spoilers, but I will say the twist and I did not get along. Maybe you will be thrilled. I was let down.

I found this movie surprisingly amazing! It was a total fluke that we watched this as we settled in to watch a movie way too late and wanted to pick one quickly. To our luck we ended up picking this one based on the cover (Netflix).

Two people alone in the woods anger two crazy hillbillies. Sounds like your typical slasher film right? Half way through the movie they add a little bit of a twist and add some ghosts stalking everyone in the woods. Sounds like a ghost movie now? Well now add in some crazy looking guy that could be the long lost Uncle of the monsters from the movie "The Descent" who is obsessed with the holocaust and Dr. Mengele's human experiments. What do you have now? With all mentioned above it may sound confusing but it isn't when at the end the Directors message packs a hard punch with an incredible twist.

I love when I watched a movie expecting nothing too special and end up watching a great flick like this one. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time in this film, wonderfully made horror film, the type of perfect horror movie that sucks you in.

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Saw this at Frightfest in London a few days ago.

Director Federico Zampaglione comes across as a really nice guy, the film seemed like a bit of a labour of love for him (he even got his old dad who helped with the script up on stage for the Q&A which was quite sweet) and he's obviously a real genre fan. That's the good news...

However, on the bad side... the story is horribly confused, the direction is all over the place - but the music isn't too bad (Zampaglione is the singer of an Italian pop-rock band) There are a few fairly gruesome moments, but there's all too much boring, nonsensical build up, with badly drawn characters running around in the woods before the "horror" bits kick in. There's also a good deal of needless mountain biking (a passion of the director) which makes the film feel like someone's switched onto an extreme sports channel for 5 mins before we can get back to the film! As I say, there are moments of promise but as an overall film it just doesn't work. I don't think that Zampaglione is really ready to be writing and helming his own films at this stage... it's a far cry from a 3 minute music promo.

Hopefully for his sake he'll maybe try and work with an outside influence who might be able to give his next project a little bit more focus. In a way you have to salute Zampaglione for making exactly the kind of film he wanted to make - but unfortunately that doesn't make it something that other people will want to watch.

One to avoid.

I got to say that I'm not big fan of Italian horror movies, but seeing trailer for this movie, got me interested.

Great beginning of the movie, intense (usually love outdoor horror movies) and fun. But, when started "bloody part" of film, I was disappointed. As I love to see blood, cutting, torturing and things like that on horror, I was not so satisfied with "killing scenes", 'cause they were not showed (camera would go up in the air or would be filming from distance). I was expecting a little bit more gory scenes in movie. Plot was good, main actor was good, not great, but at least good looking (watched with my friends, so we liked to see him on screen :)), the killer was creepy and convincing and for the first director's horror movie it was really good.

Watchable movie, definitely didn't waste my time, but could have been a lot better.

The soldier and biker David (Jake Muxworthy) is serving in Iraq and misses biking. He rides his bicycle in Europe heading to Shadow and when he stops in a bar, he meets the beautiful Angeline (Karina Testa). The troublemaker hunters Fred (Ottaviano Blitch) and Buck (Chris Coppola) bother Angeline and David and the bar owner defend her.

When David camps in the woods, the wind carries his tent and Angeline invites him to share her tent with him. On the next morning, they ride their bicycles together and enjoy the wilderness. When Angeline sees that Fred will shot an animal, she cries and he misses his shot. Fred and Buck chase the couple with their truck and the quartet have accidents and need to walk through the woods. Sooner they are captured by a weird man that lives in an isolated house and are tortured in the basement. David manages to escape and helps the hunters to leave the place, but they are hunted down by the freak. When David wakes up, he learns that the reality is worst than his nightmare.

"Shadow" is a creepy version of Adrian Lyne's "Jacob's Ladder", which is inspired in Claude Chabrol's "Alice ou la Dernière Fugue"; later, "The Jacket" used the same storyline again. "Shadow" has a promising beginning but the story is not original – the writer used not only the foregoing idea, but also a rip-off of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" or any other sub-product - and the conclusion is very disappointing. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Shadow – Na Escuridão" ("Shadow – In the Darkness")

If you liked Wolf Creek, then this funny little movie (and it is short for a movie) will probably please. It manages to remain serious enough throughout to genuinely scare, although at the beginning, to my mind, there is a slight caricature issue. I may be wrong about that, as this is an American movie made by Italians, so I'm not sure what was the intended audience. There is some beautiful forest to be ridden through, though the cameras used could have had better colour, and there was no artistic cinematography which would have been nice, although the shots of the deer were OK. Is it scary though? The first half is action, light on the dread, the second half is dripping with dread, and light on the action. It is frightening, absolutely, but I feel, in my humble opinion, that there was much more scope to develop more creepiness and tension, and I certainly wouldn't have minded the movie going a bit longer so as to enjoy that. It's like a painting that's only 80% and needs some art direction in any case. Shadow has great ideas that are slightly undernourished. Similarly the soundtrack was really original and modern, until the final frantic stages leading to the credits, when it devolved into something off-kilter and slightly distracting. Again, an unfinished painting. The flashbacks needed work, I thought, and to be more convincing. OK, I'm being really picky. Basically, Shadow is a good horror movie with plenty of skin to crawl and seat to edge onto, with excellent acting, good looking leads, and a profoundly devilish evil that's worthy of a minor award. Yea!

This was... most certainly indi to say the least haha it was a little all over the place but still had some positives.

Conceptually I found this decently interesting and in a big way was saved from being unredeemable by the twist in the end. Nothing all too interesting happened until about half way through and I think a lot of the beginning filler could have been cut. In all honesty, keeping it as close to its original form, I think it could have been most successful as a 30 minute short.

They had some really neat filming locations and set dressing so props for that. Also main guy and girl did a decent job, the two bad guys... not so much. And the bad bad guy, while he didn't say anything he was super creepy. Honestly, could have done with more of him all around.

You have to have a true appreciation for indi for this one. Also I think the concept could inspire something really interesting to work with. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't recommend.

This Italian horror initially looked like it might be going somewhere but quickly spirals out of control.

It tells the story of a soldier returning from Iraq who decides to clear his head by going to a stunning forest to cycle. There he runs into both trouble and romance in a tale that loses its footing early.

Though the idea behind the movie isn't terrible the execution is, the weak cast do not help matters and neither does the finale which defies logic.

Some movie endings can turn a bad film around, some can kill a great film outright. But when you have a film which is already pretty damn bad and end it with a twist which is beyond dumb it doesn't leave much of an impression.

This award winning Italian effort is truly pitiful and I'd recommend it to no man, woman nor bovine.

The Good:

Showed early promise

The Bad:

Beyond bad finale

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Hunters who mourn the death of a pet are cherry picking idiots

So licking toads might actually be a thing

An Italian movie that dares to be different. Even if at first it doesn't seem to go any other way, than some recent (gory) horror movies, this one actually has another layer to it. I won't say more, because that would be spoiling, but one thing is for sure, the director is one to look out for.

Even if he has a fable of over-cranking the volume (he did that at the Frightfest, I'm happy there were no ear related injuries/miss-happenings. Apart from that the movie is pretty sleek and gets away with some ridiculous plot ... well not entirely, but the ending does give it all a bit of a tweak. If you like your movie to be a bit of a brainer (as well as bloody), than you should definitely watch this.

Another one slasher movie - one of thousands. Even if there are some violent scenes - it's not a splatter.

The story is absolutely nothing new. It has no kick, it has no thrill and you will not be surprised by the next scene. Adding some war elements will also not save the movie. There are also many confusing scenes, i.e. if you're chased by a car: would you run on the road or into woods?

Actors are quite a low average however I watched the German version.

Also the budget of this movie was quite surprising for me: 1 million euro. I guess they spent 900.000 for the camera rental. I couldn't see the money elsewhere.

This movie was a pure waste of time for me - I'm very disappointed. Watch it if you have really nothing better to do.

I loved this movie at first, all of it. The final made my balls fall off, forgive my metaphor. It could have ended in 100 different ways better than this. I see this movie as a well cooked dish, made with the best ingredients and well seasoned. It only needs to be served, and 1 meter from the table the waiter loses balance and drops the whole thing. I have to say I hate nonsense finals like this one, so annoying and frustrating.

Taking a biking tour through Europe, a former soldier accidentally angers a troupe of hunters poaching in the nearby forest, but soon find themselves tormented by a far more deadly threat that has no intentions of letting them leave the area alive.

A very troubling effort, as this entry really could've been great but does have a problem with introducing a few too many flaws at times. Basically two movies in one, the first half is a cliché-but-enjoyable romp in a forest as two people fight to escape from the hunters, which includes some thrilling chases through the forest roads on bikes as the hunters chase in an armored car shooting at them, confrontations with their vicious dog and more, all done under the cover of a heavy fog in a woodland setting to give a perfect chilling atmosphere to everything, despite it being routine and far from believable as there's really no motive for the hunters to turn as vicious as they do as quickly as shown here. The last half is pretty lame as the gang is captured by a maniacal killer in the forest and are tortured by the madman, with on reason offered for the scenario. The tortures don't make sense, and are interjected at random, but there's some good stuff to come from the compound escape and the chilling nature of the set-up, only for the ridiculous twist ending to come along and ruin it all. That hurts it almost as much as the length, so this is really flawed but still has some good stuff about it.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Extreme Graphic Language and drug use.

I certainly don't intend to say that "Shadow" is a bad film, and I don't even want to discourage anyone from watching it; the only thing that is simply undeniable is that it contributes almost nothing to the horror genre. The story, written by director Frederico Zampaglione , shamelessly cashes in on the biggest and most profitable horror trends of the new millennium, namely vicious torture porn situations (eerie devices in dark and sinister cellars) and silent & nameless creeps that mercilessly ambush ignorant tourists to feast their perverted torture fetishes upon. During "Shadow", I spotted elements and ideas that were previously used in films such as "Saw", "Hostel", "Frontière(s)", "Blood Trails", "Timber Falls" and possibly a few other titles I already forgot about. Relieved that he's finally back from serving in the Iraq war, avid bike rider David goes on an adventurous trip that was recommended to him by a friend. The area, known as "The Shadow", is breath-taking and David even meets the girl of his dream. She's a French beauty called Angelique and she's also obsessed with bike riding; what are the odds on that? Their freshly found happiness rudely gets interrupted when they run into a couple of redneck hunters and are forced to abandon their bikes to hide into the thick woods. Little does David know that this only the beginning of the nightmare, as the Shadow also homes a cruel and psychopathic creep who likes to torture people. The thing that surprised (or is it annoyed?) me the most is the severe lack of sick and nasty violence depicted on screen. All the shocking stuff, as well as most of the killings, occurs off-screen, which is quite unusual for a torture porn flick. The movie does manage to be reasonably suspenseful, especially because David and Angelique are nice and amiable persons, whereas the hunters are loathsome bastards, so during the cat-and- mouse games you automatically cheer for the biker couple. Experienced horror fans can also entertain themselves by spotting all the clichés, for example the soldier flashbacks or the "decorations" inside the maniac's lair. The whole ending is sort of like a mixed bag. I certainly admire Zampaglione's courage and ambition to try something completely different, but the result is principally unsatisfying and leaves quite a lot of questions unanswered. At least you cannot claim that the climax is obvious or even remotely predictable, so that's already an accomplishment on itself. Still, considering we're already in familiar terrain, I personally would have preferred more gore and bloodshed rather than a surreal twist- ending.

I was sort of iffy about watching this due to the rating and such and I try not to watch trailers or read reviews so I don't get my hopes up but decided to watch the trailer and was surprised. The beginning of the movie is slow but is done excellently. The story line was a great idea and was also done great. The kill scenes were not gory or gruesome but I let it slide. I for once didn't expect the ending or the killer in a foreign horror movie and was glad I didn't. To cut it short this was a great way to spend some time and I would love to watch it again. I give "Shadow" an 8 out of 10.

~Joe

The end is what redeems this movie, not just because it's finally over but because it helps make some sense out of what hitherto was nonsense. Tough as it is, you do need to watch it all the way through for the Jacob's Ladder-esque revelation to give it any kind of context.

That said, it's not a patch on Jacob's Ladder, it's laden with clichés and burdened with cartoon characters delivering dreadful dialogue and glaring holes in the plot, not all of which can be dismissed by the final revelation. Soundtrack jarred too.

To me, it was like the director had watched Jacob's Ladder and maybe Deliverance or Southern Comfort and thought he could create an homage to all three in one movie, maybe with an element of Freddie Kruger thrown in for good measure. And failed.

Weird, this came out here as a new Italian horror with references toward Deodato and Argento. Can someone tell me were the references are? remember Deodato's notorious Cannibal Holocaust, straight in your face cruelty. Well, here it's all a bit dull. It didn't deliver me the shivers or anything just a few yawns.

It's clearly that Federico Zampaglione faced some money problems. This is surely a low budget. Why, because when the gore should comes in it's all done off-screen. And weren't those old Italian horrors known for their gore (Fulci, anyone?).

The acting was mediocre, nobody could really convince me. Maybe it's the story that did that. The first part it's all about two mountain bikers being hunted by some, sigh, hunters. But after 30 minutes suddenly a killer appears. The only good thing was the killer (Nuot Arquint) itself, what a body and what a face. The actors themselves are normal to do this stuff, Jake Muxworthy was in the beautiful Borderland (2007). Karina Testa came out of the gory Frontiere(s) (2007). For example, when Fred is burned by torturing he stands up were his skin do stay at the table he was bound but a few minutes later he's running like nothing happened.

I was really disappointed due the lack on gore. The ending saved the movie a bit. This could have been a really gory flick but why o why did they do it all off-screen?

Gore 1/5 Nudity 0/5 Story 2/5 Effects 2/5 Comedy 0/5

Enjoyed the movie but how sick is this director to have to put in his political views even if they make absolutely no sense in a movie filmed outside of the US? The hunters have a rebel flag on their dashboard? Really? In Europe? Then in the cave next to the pictures of Hitler and his henchmen they have a picture of President George W. Bush. What the heck was Bush's pic doing there? Also, there were films of Nazi atrocities piled up and then there was a 9/11 label on a film can. Why? So the subliminal political BS in this movie ruined it for me. It was a good movie but I don't give a hoot about this directors politics. Nor do I care to be treated as an idiot too stupid to realize what this director was trying to do. Plus, isn't subliminals illegal to use in public films without a warning label?