Review of Satanic (2016) by Filipeneto — 02 Oct 2021

I have no doubts that horror cinema is one of the most appealing, fascinating cinema genres, yet worn out and full of rubbish. This very low-budget movie is just another one to throw away and forget.

The premise is intriguing and would have given a better result if things were different: we have a group of young people who go to Los Angeles on a kind of diabolical tour in search of evil and Satanism, as if they were obscure and strange tourists: they stay in a hotel where there was a case of ritualistic suicide, and they go to look for diabolical cults in the city. Of course, as the people say, those who look will find it, and they will find a young woman who can really put all their beliefs to the test.

The movie isn't really anything special and, as a horror movie, it's pretty weak. It has a story that starts off well, and the way the film presents itself is really positive, it raises our curiosity and makes us want more. Throughout the film, the atmosphere created is tense in a pleasant way, and there's a good mystery, but everything else is a shower of cold water. The ending, with an attempt of creating a temporal paradox absolutely out of context, is worthy of pity.

The cast is weak. Sarah Hyland is the best actress present and gives us the best acting work in the film, but without decent material she can do little: all the actors have sketchy characters or just cliché, and the dialogues are often forced, unnatural or even histrionics. There is no commitment, there is no soul here. I just waited for everyone to die.

Technically, the film has a pretty satisfying cinematography for the kind of cheap, silly film it is. There's really good filming work here, and cinematography does a lot for setting the environment. Unfortunately, that's basically all we've got good at in terms of technical features and production values. The effects used are cheap, at the level of an amateur theatre. The sound is uninteresting, and the soundtrack is simply forgettable. To make things even worse, there's a grueling post-production job, with obvious cuts and sometimes rough editing, with sudden scenes alternating with ones that take longer than they should.