Curse of the Sin Eater

Curse of the Sin Eater is a pretty original making of a historical ritual. According to Wikipedia: "A sin-eater is a person who consumes a ritual meal in order to spiritually take on the sins of a deceased person. The food was believed to absorb the sins of a recently dead person, thus absolving the soul of the person."

However, this movie takes a historical idea and gives it very unique twists and turns. You need however to fight the urge to skip forward to see how it ends.

Elizabeth Laidlaw and Larry Yando give a masterful performance, and the cast of characters blends quite well.

If you manage to predict the amazing ending then congratulate yourself, and buy yourself a prize. I hope there will be a sequel.

Sin Eaters exist in folklore, and take on the transgressions of a deceased person. It's a notion full of possibilities for a modern horror film. But they are never realized here. There is not enough horror to call this a horror film, and not enough suspense to call it a thriller. The main inspiration seems to be Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, with a stern-faced housekeeper overseeing a forbidding mansion. But even this isn't fully exploited. A few setups show some promise to bring this up a notch, but the execution is lacking and the ideas are never fleshed out.

Basically, it feels like a made-for-cable film on a tight budget. The acting from everyone is bland. Nothing in it is particularly memorable or noteworthy. It gets three stars because there is lots worse on streaming services, but there is also lots better.

I consider that the concept or the main idea is interesting. One poor boy assuming other's sins in exchange for money, it sounds interesting. Of course.

However, the movie is slow, full of drama, no action, no horror. Every single time that a "ghost" appears looks like a low bugdet movie. Without the ghosts, the movie would be much better. Plus, you can see a color change on the image when a ghost appears, that is terrible.

I didn't like the movie, and I feel angry because as I said, the initial idea is promising, but everything goes down while the movie is playing.

In conclusion, well idea, bad execution.

When I sat down to watch the 2024 movie "Curse of the Sin Eater" from director Justin Denton, I had never actually heard about it. But the movie's cover proved interesting enough, and the fact that it was a horror movie that I hadn't already seen, and given my fascination with the horror genre, of course I needed no persuasion to sit down and watch the movie.

I literally had no idea what I was in for here, so writers Adam Davis and Will Corona Pilgrim essentially had every opportunity to impress and entertain me.

The narrative is a slow burn. You need to venture well over halfway through the movie before things start to happen. And truth be told, I have to admit that my interest in the story was waning at that point. So writers Adam Davis and Will Corona Pilgrim sort of dropped the ball and never got it back on track.

The cast ensemble in the movie were all actors and actresses that I wasn't familiar with. And that is actually something that spoke in favor of the movie, as I enjoy watching unfamiliar talents on the screen. And I will say, that despite a subpar script and storyline, then the acting performances in "Curse of the Sin Eater" were fair.

Visually then you're not in for a grand experience in horror cinema. There were some simplistic special effects throughout the course of the movie, but it was hardly sufficient to boost the movie up and out of the mediocre lane.

My rating of director Justin Denton's 2024 movie "Curse of the Sin Eater" lands on a three out of ten stars.

I was taken totally by surprise by this movie, it was excellent! The casting was perfect with the lead actor giving a gritty and realistic portrayal of a young guy having an extremely difficult time with his life!

Shrimp's appearance and demeanor are disturbing, but totally realistic in showing the poverty and desperation of a working class kid on Chicago's rough South Side. I am very impressed with his performance and just about every member of the cast as well - they evoked genuine emotion on my part.

The story line is based on an old Indian practice, but with a very surprising twist - the sin eater ALWAYS was headed for punishment, but after death. With this film the punishment starts on day one and includes an accumulation of sins from past sin eaters!

Excellent plot, execution of that plot with fine acting in all quarters! This was a surprise delight of a movie!

Congrats to all people connected with its production!!!!