Cherry Tree

Filmed in Ireland but presumably set in England, judging by the actor's accents, this is a tale of witchcraft, teenagers & life & death. The leader of the coven is played by Anna Walton, surely one of the best looking witches ever to grace the screen. Sexy on the outside but ruthless, powerful & evil on the inside, it's down to a 16 year old school girl to put paid to her dark scheme of domination. It's a good, well made film (though not without a few goofs & gaffs), well acted & contains enough gore for most. Yes, Rosemary's Baby is an obvious influence & the end is rather comical, but it's well worth watch. Just don't confuse it with Cherry Tree Lane!

The Wtching Tree meets Rosemary's Baby.

I don't understand why this film was made this way, an Irish film with an all English cast, no problem with an updated remaining of other films and stories but why they chose to confuse an audience with the depiction of location and the obvious misallocation of accents?

It's clearly low budget which in the old days of 70's and 80's horror was perfectly acceptable as they usually used shock factor to make up for the poor imigary and acting.

This is the opposite, the acting and imigary are acceptable for a modern audience but it has no shock facter which just makes it meh.

Passes the time I suppose.

Hellboy 2's Anna Walton plays teacher Sissy. I wish my teachers looked like her. Naomi Battrick is one of her pupils, Faith, who has a troubled personal life. Her school life isn't a bed of roses either, as she is bullied by her bored, empty-headed classmates. She's also a virgin, which marks her out for special attention in this fast-moving horror tale.

Director David Keating piles events on top of each other, giving us no chance to become distracted. The moments of horror are competently staged, and the acting is convincing throughout. With so much going on and so quickly, I sometimes got the impression while watching that the film doesn't quite know what it wants to be. The finale takes on a rather different tone, in which we get the impression we're not supposed to be taking things too seriously, which further compounds the uneven quality. Nonetheless, an enjoyable, energetic chiller. My score is 7 out of 10.

There is nothing wrong copying a classic (at least that's how I feel, I know some people think this is sacrilege). There is something wrong if you don't do it right though. I'm still being nice considering how bad the acting and the script for this is. It's not that the actors in this try to be bad, but sometimes the script is not helping you do your work either.

There is nudity and blood though, so if you are into exploitation sort of, you may find things that are at least a bit exciting. So this is more graphic than Rosemarys baby for example, because it can. It doesn't elevate it or bring it close enough to even make it a contender. If you like filth, go ahead watch, but don't forget: you've been warned

CHERRY TREE is an Irish horror yarn that comes to us courtesy of the team behind Hammer's WAKE WOOD. I didn't like WAKE WOOD much, finding it an uninspired copy of PET SEMATARY, and CHERRY TREE in turn is a somewhat weak retread of ROSEMARY'S BABY except done on a low budget and lacking that classic film's atmosphere of deceit and dread.

Saying that, this isn't a bad film at all. It's quite well made and I appreciate what the filmmakers were trying to do here. A young cast give performances that are pretty good for a genre flick, with lead actress Naomi Battrick very effective as a protagonist who must find reserves of inner strength in order to fight some very literal demons.

As a horror film, CHERRY TREE goes for the gross-out approach throughout, with some very gory moments included particularly towards the climax. KILL LIST is another film that this one appears to be indebted to. The director also has an obsession with centipedes, although they're included as random CGI nasties here rather than being truly disgusting as in an '80s Hong Kong horror flick like CENTIPEDE HORROR. Anna Walton (who played the elfin princess in HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY) is highly effective in a crucial role.