The Bell Keeper

It's kind of hard to forge a decent horror film, when the concept is to make a cheap pastiche, based on an idiotic premise.

The whole thing is effectively a mash-up of Evil Dead and Knock At The Cabin - which is an act of blasphemy in itself.

And tries way too hard to force a horror-comedy angle into the storyline...which just doesn't work.

Because it makes the whole thing seem confused about what it wants to be.

Does it want to be a comedy? Or serious horror?

One can only assume they've tried to make it the best of both worlds.

However, these two different paths mix like oil and water in this example.

With the crux of the storyline coming off extremely forced at best.

It's just not a very good film.

But I guess that's what you get when you try to emulate a hack like Shyamalan.

It's not surprising that this was made by the same director who brought us the travesty that is Snow Falls (among other awful 2023 releases).

And while it might not be as bad as that film...it's still pretty bad.

2 out of 10.

A film with four teens - 2 girls and 2 boys who are dating couples - plus Liam, who is the brother of one of the other guys. There is also a weird filling station woman, 2 dumb-ass redneck local cops, a girl looking for her missing brother and an immortal called Hank the killer.

The film begins with the two couples being typical whining females and unfunny males. They are a cringe quartet who are totally unlikable and whom you hope are killed off as soon as possible; because they just get on your nerves.

From that bad start the film goes on and on and on, but does not get any better. Its a shame really because I thought that the plot outline was good, a story that could have made a decent film. Unfortunately there was just nothing in the input given by any of the cast and, it just dragged on slowly. To me it rated as a C film and I stuck with it to the end and was very thankful when it ended.

No tension, no scary moments, no shocks and no horror...so no point to it having been made!

Light, watered down horror that would appeal more to Elsie and Molly generation than seasoned hardcore fans-it wouldn't look out of place on Netflix.

Like most horrors I've seen of late its a hodgepodge of other horrors with all the stock characters in place. I was reminded of the similar horror I watched on 26/9 called ' She Came From The Woods' in its young characters being picked off by a malevolent entity but that film had humour, sympathetic characters and a witty script. It knows it's target audience and sends up the genre-this comes reasonably close.

Being Halloween today I fancied something silly and forgettable-I got it here.

A cheap B-movie horror about some friends going out to film in the woods in search of a legendary bell. The story goes that those who ring the bell are thereafter cursed by a demon, and of course these numbskulls have to go and see for themselves what it's all about. It's business as usual for the genre, with a small cast and only middling scares, although it's surprisingly well paced which means it's more watchable than some. The biggest surprise here is a rare foray into the horror genre for former wrestling star Randy Couture, best known for THE EXPENDABLES movies; he gives the best performance here and is quite likeable.

The storyline in "The Gate Keeper", as written by Joe Davison and Luke Genton, was actually a fair enough script and storyline, which felt like something you'd see in a 1980s horror movie. And I have to admit that I liked that about it, as it was a nice touch to the movie.

The movie even had the classic hiker out looking for a lost sibling, complete with a missings person flyer and all. That was definitely a nod towards the tropes often seen in 1980s and 1990s horror movies.

The acting performances in "The Bell Keeper" were actually good. I can't claim to be thrilled about having the likes of Randy Couture on the cast list, and in such a pivotal role nonetheless, as I never did take a liking to him or his acting skills. There were a couple of familiar faces on the cast list, with the likes of Mike Manning and Bonnie Aarons. I will say that the actors and actresses, in general, put on good performances throughout the course of the movie.

"The Bell Keeper" is the type of horror movie that you watch once, then bag and tag it, never to bring it out for a second viewing. While it was an adequately watchable movie, it was by no means a scary horror movie. And I think that was mainly because of the non-distinct killer that the Hank character (played by Randy Couture) was.

My rating of "The Gate Keeper" lands on an four out of ten stars.