An exercise in mediocrity!
Some horror movies are drawn out, but have a cool twist ending. Some horror movies have something to say about society. Some horror movies are goofy and bloody at the same time. And then some are like "The Shrine", totally average in every way. Man, when I first started watching this, I knew what I was in for...and pretty much everything I thought would happen did happen. But, at the same time, it's not the level of terrible that Midnight Movie was. I still have a hard time recommending it though, most of it is so "blah", and "give me a break". So let's dive into...wait if you try to dive into this you are going to hit bottom fast, as there is no depth!
The film starts off with a young man being ritually sacrificed by having a mask hammered into his head. Now that I have that out of the way...we meet Carmen (played by Cindy Sampson of Supernatural fame...and so much better in that!) and Marcus (played by Shawn Ashmore of X-men fame...wondering how he went from that to this). They argue because Carmen just wants to be the next Lois Lane, and Marcus just wants to be loved. And it's not like this journalist gig is getting her anywhere, I mean her boss is only interested in bees dying out. But Carmen happens upon the story of poor Eric Taylor, that has gone missing in Europe, and with her sidekick Sara (Megan Heffern) by her side, and after visiting Eric's mom Laura (Laura de Carteret), and procuring Eric's journal, off she goes to convince Marcus to come with them.
To no one's surprise they are in Europe the next thing you know, and this village where Marcus was last seen...I mean it has creepy little girls, and not-friendly locals...and a mysterious fog bank that just hangs in the air. And after being threatened, what else is there to do but go investigate...and find a creepy bloody statue in the fog...both girls, because one is not enough. At least Marcus is smart enough to not do this. But before you know it the little creepy girl is back and tells them that she knows where Ben is...so like lemmings they follow her into a trap. And of course when they escape this trap they run into the last place that Ben put in his journal...an old barn. I don't know...if that was his last entry, I think I would choose somewhere else to hide. And we are treated to one of the girls being ritually sacrificed after they are captured...and of course none of this is as it seems....
I know that I spoiled a lot of this movie, but really there is no reason to watch it. How many horror movies have you seen where the overly ambitious girl leads the entire group into danger. You know, I would like to see a horror movie parody, where the person in the group that starts spouting out ideas we know is going to get them all killed, is promptly knocked out and the person that did it says, "I'm sorry, I had to do it, she was going to get us all killed!" In fact, I would applaud that scene. There is not much here, it's just so paint by numbers that by the time you get to the "twist", you don't even care. And that's kind of a shame, because that's when we get some pretty cool gore effects...and some really plastic looking masks. Err...
The acting in this is really subpar. There is no intensity, and I have seen both Ashmore and Sampson do much better than this. There is nothing striking about the music..standard horror movie fare, and the sound effects..well at one point I was just laughing at how ridiculous it was. Slight spoiler here, but can anyone tell me why demon's growl like lions? It robbed what could have been a pretty intense scene, by making it ultra campy. And the twist ending is not bad, I didn't see it coming...but too little too late. All of the cliches that came before...it's not like getting a fantastic dessert after eating a mundane meal. It's really not. If you are looking for an average occult horror movie...then enter "The Shrine".
5 out of 10
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