Cherry Tree

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.

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.

I see other reviews calling this a rip off of other film ideas, but is that not simply a genre? Is every vampire film a rip off of Nosferatu? Every werewolf film a rip off of The Wolf man? You get the idea. It's an OK film, seen far worse.

The one thing that got me is why every cast member had an English accent when it was clearly filmed in Ireland?

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.

Strange to see that this flick has a low rating. Of course I can understand it because it's not a typical horror. It's all about witchcraft but it take a while before things go awry.

But for me it immediately got my attention from the start. And i agree, you have to wait until the end before the real horror comes in and in between it's a bit of a normal story, maybe the story itself isn't that strong but I still found it worth picking up. In Belgium and the Netherlands this flick is well promotes even as it is a Irish flick because it's been supported by Jan Doense well known in both countries for his addiction to horror. And naturally at film festivals it was programmed by him.

The story is simple, a girl her father is dying but she's been bullied aged 15 and still being a virgin. A new teacher at school watches her closely and brings her into witchcraft. If she gets pregnant then the witch promise her she will heal her father. But there's one thing she must agree, she has to give over the baby to the witch to be offered to the Devil.

For the geeks this will be indeed be a no go flick but if you are a newbie then just pick it up. If you are a geek and can stand horrors without to much horror just until the end, pick it up too.

Gore 1/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5