There is so much wrong with this movie I don't know where to start. There were warning sings though, the opening title says "INSPIRED by true events" not based on, which is clearly not a good sign.
Then, without wasting any time, we jump straight into the story. No character introductions or mood-establishing shots, nothing. I thought they didn't want the movie to feel boring because it's too long, I checked the run time - almost 90 minutes. That was the moment when I realized I'm in trouble.
In like the first 5 minutes our main character, a journalist, driven by a very bleak motivation we know nothing about yet (remember, no introduction), decides to go to Romania to investigate a crime based around exorcism (INSPIRED by the Tanacu Exorcism of 2005).
Throughout the movie the main character just walks around, drives around and asks stupid questions to provide for more expository dialogue. There is no atmosphere or any sort of horror feel to this, no mystery. They way it is directed, lit and shot makes you feel like you're watching a bad commercial. It's so unoriginal and as much NOT SCARY as a movie can possibly be.
After 70 minutes of wandering around while being subjected to non-scary scares (boring jumpscares, mostly) the movie finally decides it is time to end. A sort of climax comes and the big mystery is revealed which was never a mystery to begin with. 2 hard cuts and the movie just stops. Wow.
The movie ended and here is what I can say about it:
1. It feels heavily cut and re-edited, some scenes contradict each other and are out of order, some scenes are very noticeably split into two segments (like the talking scene with Sister Vaduva). The introduction and a better ending was probably cut out as well I assume.
2. The director of photography is either in a relationship or is heavily obsessed with Sophie Cookson. Up to a 15% of the movie are close-ups of her face. She is a beautiful young lady, but there is really no need to focus this many shots on her face. They also introduce a lot of unnecessary nudity from Sophie Cookson. It really feels like they just wanted to see her naked or something, this is so wrong. In fact, if you google "Sophie Cookson nude" the first results you get will be from this movie (don't ask me why I did it), FOR SCIENCE!
3. This has no story, no characters and thus no character arcs, no horror or scares, no interesting locations, no creative shots or setups, nothing.
The only thing that didn't suck was probably the casting. Some of the supporting cast was in fact Romanian and felt somewhat believable.
Why even bother with the "inspired by real events" thing? Just take pseudo-Romanian setting - mountains, small county, introduce us into Orthodox Christianity and try to defile it in front of us. So much can be done with this concept...
Anyways, if you want to know more about the Tanacu Exorcism - watch Dupa dealuri (2012) instead.
I rarely say this, but seriously, don't waste your time on this movie, it is not worth it.
Then, without wasting any time, we jump straight into the story. No character introductions or mood-establishing shots, nothing. I thought they didn't want the movie to feel boring because it's too long, I checked the run time - almost 90 minutes. That was the moment when I realized I'm in trouble.
In like the first 5 minutes our main character, a journalist, driven by a very bleak motivation we know nothing about yet (remember, no introduction), decides to go to Romania to investigate a crime based around exorcism (INSPIRED by the Tanacu Exorcism of 2005).
Throughout the movie the main character just walks around, drives around and asks stupid questions to provide for more expository dialogue. There is no atmosphere or any sort of horror feel to this, no mystery. They way it is directed, lit and shot makes you feel like you're watching a bad commercial. It's so unoriginal and as much NOT SCARY as a movie can possibly be.
After 70 minutes of wandering around while being subjected to non-scary scares (boring jumpscares, mostly) the movie finally decides it is time to end. A sort of climax comes and the big mystery is revealed which was never a mystery to begin with. 2 hard cuts and the movie just stops. Wow.
The movie ended and here is what I can say about it:
1. It feels heavily cut and re-edited, some scenes contradict each other and are out of order, some scenes are very noticeably split into two segments (like the talking scene with Sister Vaduva). The introduction and a better ending was probably cut out as well I assume.
2. The director of photography is either in a relationship or is heavily obsessed with Sophie Cookson. Up to a 15% of the movie are close-ups of her face. She is a beautiful young lady, but there is really no need to focus this many shots on her face. They also introduce a lot of unnecessary nudity from Sophie Cookson. It really feels like they just wanted to see her naked or something, this is so wrong. In fact, if you google "Sophie Cookson nude" the first results you get will be from this movie (don't ask me why I did it), FOR SCIENCE!
3. This has no story, no characters and thus no character arcs, no horror or scares, no interesting locations, no creative shots or setups, nothing.
The only thing that didn't suck was probably the casting. Some of the supporting cast was in fact Romanian and felt somewhat believable.
Why even bother with the "inspired by real events" thing? Just take pseudo-Romanian setting - mountains, small county, introduce us into Orthodox Christianity and try to defile it in front of us. So much can be done with this concept...
Anyways, if you want to know more about the Tanacu Exorcism - watch Dupa dealuri (2012) instead.
I rarely say this, but seriously, don't waste your time on this movie, it is not worth it.