- Also Known As:
- Unknown
- Version:
- Language:
- Length:
- 114 minutes: Uncut
- Review Format:
- DVD
- Year:
- 2014
- Country:
- Predominant Genre:
- Horror
- Director:
- Outstanding Performances:
- Premiss:
- Police officer investigates a series of crimes; joining forces with an exorcist to combat demonic possessions terrorizing a city.
- Themes:
- Alienation
- Atheism
- Christianity
- Compassion
- Courage
- Destiny
- Emotional repression
- Family
- Friendship
- God
- Guilt
- Identity
- Justice
- Loneliness
- Love
- Personal change
- Sadomasochism
- Schizophrenia
- Solipsism
- Stereotyping
- White culture
- Similar to:
- Exorcist Serpico
Blatant and rather mediocre rip-off of The Exorcist, but without the genuine sense of the genuine existence of genuine evil as a genuine force in human life. Instead, we have Christian fundamentalism rather than a full exploration of the nature of evil.
Without a story, the audience is left with a set of repetitive scare moments based upon electric light and even candles not working most evenings - when they are most needed - rather than any real, non-perfunctory, fear of what might happen next. While the world’s energy supplies thus run dangerously low, the stygian cinematography burdens the film with the absurd sense of an evil that only lurks in shadows - preying on fears but never fully-exploiting them; never offering any clue as to the purpose of evil nor, indeed, the purpose of good.
The generic contortions inherent in this hybrid of police procedural and demonic possession thriller fail to work, since neither serves the dramaturgical interests of the other; preferring, instead, the stark simplifications of good versus evil; light versus darkness; love versus hate.
The movie tries to have it both ways by pretending evil is both crucially-dependent on human agency for its effectuation; while also existing independently of humans. The former proves evil can never be all-powerful since it depends on flawed humans for its realization; the latter suggests evil actually would have a purpose in a world where there were no humans - without suggesting what this could possibly be. But since evil is a profoundly-human concept, acontextual evil makes little sense since ruling just the animal kingdom would be all-too-easy and, thus, not much of a proof of absolyte power. Evil divorced from human agency is a cliché in horror movies, but makes no sense in the real world in which evil only exists because humans do. The movie cannot decide whether it is a crime drama or a horror story - and neither can the audience. (Alien, for example, was clear that it was a horror movie and not much of a science-fiction narrative; making it easier for the audience to know (& enjoy) what it is watching.)
A terrible blandness - paradoxically springing from a (needlessly-)convoluted screenplay - overcomes this unremarkable film because the characters are not so well-written that they engage the audience enough to make them care - despite the above-average performances. The film’s poor pacing and its over-length makes this situation worse by exposing the movie’s thematic weakness and sense that the filmmakers do not really understand the story they are telling well-enough to know what to edit out.
There is a good story here about the personal phobias that hold individuals back from achieving their full worth; while leading them astray from the path of goodness with false promises of shortcuts to success (& resultant lack of personal fulfillment) - but this is not it. Instead, the audience is presented with a time-passing movie of weakly-explored themes, unoriginal horror-movie tricks and under-written characters.
No comments:
Post a Comment