Review of Plague Town (2009) by Lish C — 12 Feb 2010

May contain Spoilers.

OK... Definitely contains spoilers.

So, I read about this movie this past summer in one of my friends video game magazines. It claimed it was one of the creepiest horror movies to come out in years. Naturally, I was very excited when I opened my mail from Netflix to see Plague Town enclosed.

So, it started with a bang, a motherly urge to protect her baby from a priest wanting to kill it because it is 'not a creature of god'. Few good shots to the head put that idea to rest. Then we skip ahead 14 years later to a family vacation (a father, 2 daughter, a boyfriend, and a soon to be stepmother). I was hooked right away, but then.. in common horror movie fashion, it takes about 30 minutes for anything else interesting to happen. We spend that time getting to know the family and in some very intense sisterly arguments. About 20 minutes in, I was hoping the creepiness would come out of the woodwork and take them both so I wouldn't have to hear them argue anymore.

Then we move into night, cause who can have a horror movie in daylight?? This is one of the bad concepts that horror movies like to go with. Lets have a lot of awesome death sequences at night and see if people can still tell whats going on, with everything dark with shotty camera angles. I agree that night is definitely creepier then day I can see where that comes from. But c'mon. Its not exactly optimal for my viewing pleasure. Some people might argue that it makes it scarier to have to fill in the blanks there, and I agree that sometimes it does. But it can be way overdone, and with this one..it really was. I had to keep turning to my husband to get some clarification on what he saw because it was a little difficult at times.

Moving on, so we make the classic horror movie mistakes like going off by ourselves, ignoring help when its offered, drinking, smoking, sex..well not quite sex but he was definitely trying. The family misses the last bus back to town and they are stuck overnight, in this place that doesn't really have a name, the father just knows where they are due to 'instinct'. He instinct kinda sucks if you ask me. First the girl and the boyfriend go off by themselves to try to find a house to get help, leading to him getting shot in the face and her getting surrounded by creepy kids. The dad has to go after him, which leads to a much scene that could have been much better with a little more light (of course)... and also makes you wonder that if you enter a house and are stabbed in the first 90 seconds, if you'd hang around to see if the people there would still help you.

We get to witness death by hubcap next, which is kinda great, but expense was definitely spared. Typically when someone is bludgeoned to death by an object, the blood is on the object...not just the person. Fyi.

Eventually, without giving the whole shebang away, we meet dear, sweet Rosemary.. not as sweet as she may seem. I love the way she looks, the creepiness, her gestures. She was a pretty well done character. Vicious as well.

Regardless of all the negativity I've pointed out (what more can you expect from a pessimist) I'm not going to give a few quick highlights of the movie. The gore was well done. There were creepy sounds throughout (downside to that as well, expecting something to happen and then being disappointed when you have to wait longer and longer). The kids in this movie were legitimately creepy. Not in like, the awesome Japanese horror type of way but more of less in like.. a Hills Have Eyes type of way where they are kinda deformed and just..twisted. The ending was decent, which I won't give away but I like endings that don't give themselves away too much. It has a nice psychological aspect to it, which I thoroughly enjoy in a horror movie.

Was it the creepiest horror movie to come out in years?? Very doubtful. I read reviews, or critiques of movies all the time, but then again, I rarely agree. I could be a product of watching way too many horror movies, and can't really find much to creep me out anymore.

I would watch Plague Town again, but it wouldn't be for awhile. And I'd have to make sure I had Excedrin migraine on hand because sometimes just looking at the way they try to film these things, is enough to due me in for the night.