Review of The Shrine (2010) by Elizabeth R — 11 Aug 2011

The Shrine starts out slowly and reminded me of those spooky old fashioned evil cult movies like Horror Hotel. Story opens with a backpacker in Eastern Europe meeting a horrible fate in the first scene and a reporter and her associates then setting out to find him when he's reported missing.

They find themselves in a remote Polish village where he was last thought to be and, to say there is something evil and strange going on in this village is an understatement. And the deeper our trio looks, the deeper the trouble they realize they're in.

But Shrine becomes something else entirely in it's final act and that's what makes it work so well. We've become so complacent with the slow burning spookiness that we aren't ready for the ferocious and gory climax nor the revelations contained within.

The cast of unkowns does fine, the leads are a bit wooden but not enough to do damage and the Polish locals are suitably creepy as they're supposed to be. Director Knautz creates good atmosphere and purposely does not use subtitles during Polish speaking parts to make us feel part of the main characters' alienation and feeling of being alone.

He also creates some nice tension when he cranks things up for the farmhouse climax. Entertaining and effectively spooky.