martin f
As expected from a low-budget horror movie, it was cliché, badly-acted with few care about fluidity and just boringly directed (still in a above average kind of way though). It's very pro-Christian but not in a "in your throat" kind of way. The movie uses modern Christian beliefs to give a little more to its story. All characters are in purgatory and have to make an act of faith so God can send them in heaven. That said, it feels weird that the main bad guy can use magic there, also what he is doing that? He turns people into slave zombies for his cult with what seem to be bloody black magic but he still presents himself as a Christian God worshipper? Also since the main protagonist kills and tortures during his trial in the purgatory why should he go to heaven? Yes, the story is not very polished here to the point to be confusing at the time... Why I gave this score to this movie despite all its flaws is because of the last act revelation that I found very clever and original. You would wish a bigger movie would have do the same!
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
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Audience Member
Very interesting concept. Worth seeing, I enjoy the little twists and it is definitely a thriller.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/18/23
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Audience Member
Stay away, it’s garb garb
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
07/10/18
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jesse o
I'm being honest when I say that I didn't pick this yesterday on purpose. Well, I mean, I did pick it on purpose, but I had no idea it had religious themes. Admittedly speaking, this isn't one of those awful religious movies where the entire purpose is to pander to believers by telling a story that reaffirms their faith. This just happens to be a horror movie that just happens to use some religious concepts for its narrative of trying to get Ben to accept...grace, as they so "eloquently" state a gajillion times in the film. Realistically speaking, the only reason I even bothered with this movie, I didn't even watch a trailer, was because I'm a big fan of Ethan Embry. While he's now part of the Sneaky Pete cast, Ethan has mostly stuck to smaller, independent movies and he, from what I've seen, is always reliably consistent at what he does. Tell me the last time you saw Ethan Embry give a bad performance? In any medium, since he hasn't appeared in a movie since 2015 (this year's Blindspotting changes that). I've got time, I'll wait. Vegas Vacation??? But, I digress, he was the sole reason I watched this movie and, wouldn't it surprise you, he ended up being the best thing in the movie. Though, to be fair, it's not like that's really saying much in a film like this. Where do I begin? I think the first thing that is notable is that the movie makes it painfully obvious that it's set in the late-90s. In fact, it's set several prior to the end of the decade and the millennium. There's radio broadcasts talking about the Y2K craze. If you lived through that, then you know how crazy that shit was. Anyway, the fact that the movie makes it perfectly clear that it takes place in the 90s means that there's bound to be some time-hopping of some sort. What I mean by that is that it's easy to figure out there's gonna be some bullshit involving modern times and our characters being stuck in some sort of limbo. And that's pretty much exactly what happened. Conceptually speaking, while this movie isn't all that inventive, I do like the concept. Sometimes it lays on the themes of redemption and accepting grace a little thick and a lot of the imagery is sort of on the nose. Like every character that crosses the hospital floor into the chapel, having accepted grace, being "saved" and disappearing. That's a little too literal and obvious for my tastes, but I think it works with the story of everyone around Ben trying to get him to accept grace and to not be consumed by vengeance. The problem comes in that the movie isn't always the most GRACEFUL with its narrative. You're sort of thrown into the events. To sum up a long story, there's been a series of bombings in the Atlanta area and Ben, a detective with a newborn daughter, investigates one of these. His parents also died during one of these explosions, so it's personal for him. While in an abandoned apartment building, he comes across a suspect before another explosion lands him in the hospital. While there he comes across his boss, who's joined by a group of other unnamed people and a nurse. One of the problems, to me, is the fact that Daniel, the lead villain who's played by Embry, is introduced haphazardly. He kills one guy and his wife, who runs away, is later recruited into his...religious group, so to speak. Daniel's thing is recruiting non-believers into his group, and you get to see most of them. But there's an orderly, who sort of looked like a knock-off Danny Trejo, who's just WITH Daniel and his 'recruitment', so to speak, is never shown. He's with Daniel just because. And that's just shit storytelling to me. This guy is never once shown just being a regular orderly before Daniel recruits him, like they did with the nurse. It's stupid and ineffective. Another thing is that, while Embry does a very good job as the leader of this religious cult, I was never exactly clear as to what his motivations really were. He spouted a bunch of religious mumbo-jumbo, but he didn't really say anything of importance. Embry does his best, but if the proper dialogue isn't there, he can't do much with that. So, for pretty much a huge chunk of the film, you're just trying to figure out what's going on and why it's going on. There's also these figures that look like black smoke that keep popping out throughout. These black figures are later revealed to be a group of paranormal investigators, in 2015, exploring the now-abandoned hospital looking for some evidence of the paranormal and to find Daniel's accomplice in the bombings (that you see a brief glimpse of before the second explosion). The lead of this group is a little girl that was a victim of the first bombing that got Ben to go investigate what happened. The group sees Ben and everyone else as the black smoke that is seen in the hospital as Ben investigates. It's a little confusing, but let's go with it. So this woman sees dead people, literally, and is able to transport herself to the state of limbo that Ben, Daniel and the rest find themselves in. How she does this is never explained. It's a pretty important detail, but she just brushes it away with a 'I've always been able to do it' and that's it. Perhaps I should have been up in arms about this, but I honestly really didn't care enough about this movie to have been outraged by this "twist". I mean it's not as insulting as The Village was. If you believe in the paranormal, then at least it sort of makes sense. I didn't like it, I felt like it was too out of left field for it to be any good, but I've seen worse. I realize that's not a glowing recommendation, but it's the best that I can say. Clayne Crawford, while a good enough actor in other stuff, just feels a little bland here. The fact that he always looks like he's always pissed off or about to fly off the handle doesn't help any, because it limits his facial expressions. Perhaps that's just a case of this movie maybe not interesting him as much as, say, other higher-profile gigs, but still. There's some really wooden line delivery here as well. I honestly think Clayne and Embry should have switched roles, Clayne should have been the villain and Embry the detective. I think Clayne is more suited to those roles anyway and Embry can, in my opinion, play a believable family man role, to where he makes you sympathize with him. Because, again, Clayne isn't bad, but there's no real sense of urgency to anything that he does. There's no emotional attachment to be had with this guy. And perhaps that's scripting not doing a good enough job at making you care for the characters. That would be a very valid argument, but I still think the leads should have been switched. I did like the ending, though, in that ***SPOILERS*** Ben refuses to accept grace once he has Daniel tied up and he'll enact his own kind of special revenge until Ben feels satisfied. That's what most movies would have done, they would have had the lead take the moral high ground and not stoop down to the villain's level, but I'm glad that this took the opposite approach. Something that's in this flick's favor, at least. I don't think this was a bad movie and, while it does have its religious themes, it sprinkles them in in a way that actually benefits the main character's narrative arc. Other than that, however, there's nothing really to this movie. Poor scripting, character development, miscasting and lack of subtlety with some of its religious ideas make this a watchable, but not particularly enjoyable, experience.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Absolute rubbish. Didn't have a clue what this was about and couldn't understand what was going on although this is probably more due to my mental health than anything else.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
02/25/23
Full Review
Audience Member
just rubbish. incoherent and pointless
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
02/07/23
Full Review
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