suite92
Michael's wife and daughter die in a car crash. Then 14 years go by. However, this point in time is returned to more than once, such as when Maggie introduces very young Sarah to Uncle Michael at Echling Manor.In the present, bad-tempered, ungrateful teenager Sarah steals some booze and a necklace, gives her mother a hard time, then goes to see her friend and fellow drinker Emily. They drink and talk about how creepy Echling Manor is. That does not last long. The zombie apocalypse arrives in the blink of an eye. Emily gets killed right off the bat.A young man (I guess) rescues Sarah, and they make their way through small mobs of zombies. These are fast zombies. The young man is even faster with his sword, but he and Sarah have to run to get away from the remaining zombies.In the past, Michael finds a large, creepy book under a broken floor board in Echling Manor. All this back and forth over 14 years is irritating. Perhaps I'll see the utility later.Sarah and the young man hole up on the 'old church' which looks absolutely nothing like the rest of the town. They have an incredibly inane conversation filled with bald assertions that often make no sense. The young man finally identifies himself as Jacob. With lines such as 'Hey, I need you to trust me,' and 'The sanctuary has been breached,' I'm hoping the zombies get him first. As well as the zombies, we have a gorilla-Predator-Spiderman cross-match, and hordes of low-flying bats. Sigh.In the past, Michael reads the journal or whatever. He's tormented by bumps in the night and feelings of doom. He reads the journal (a spell book) and ignores writing his current novel. Eventually, he starts invoking spells. He shows Maggie and Sarah one of the more elementary ones. Unfortunately, it immediately starts warping his ego and ethical sensibilities.Jacob and Sarah go down the secret exit from the church. The church is one small room, maybe 1000 square feet. Underneath the church is huge, as in hundreds of football fields of area, huge supporting structures, and quite a high ceiling. Sarah meets the necromancer Mathias, who wants the necklace from Sarah's neck. He cannot take it from her, for unknown reasons. Soon Mathias shows up as does an enormous crowd of CGI characters. To escape, they climb a cliff hundreds of feet high. Sure.Maggie and Jill hide in a closet at home. Maggie hears a noise, and goes to see whether it is Sarah returning. It's not; it's the zombies. Maggie and Jill run for it.Jacob and Sarah have more run-ins with zombies. They have some quality time together where they discuss the necromancer, the necklace, the book of spells, and the monsters. Jacob lived at Michael's house a bit after Michael. They discuss Sarah's meeting of the necromancer, and the 'Rune of Syirlan,' which Sarah had been wearing as a necklace. Jacob tells her that they've been trailed because she had skin contact with the Run. Sarah tells Jacob that she inherited the necklace from Uncle Michael after he died in Echling Manor. Jacob relates that his parents died soon after they moved into the house a few years later. Also, Echling Manor used to be the necromancer's house. No one else has been welcome since.In the past, Michael kills the drunk driver who ran down his family. He uses that to bring forth one of the more advanced spells. That is, summoning one of the necromancer's familiars. Then he summons another. Later, when Jacob's family moves into Echling Manor, the servants of the necromancer are all present.In the present, Sarah and Jacob confront the necromancer too early; Jacob loses his sword and they lose Jill. The necromancer invokes night, and the zombies rise. Jacob goes to meet the necromancer in Echling Manor.Will anyone get out alive? -----Scores------Cinematography: 6/10 Fine most of the time. Occasionally, as in the tombs under the town, the mob made of CGI looks totally fake, which it is. Unfortunately, it's horribly fake. Demerits for shaky camera and out of focus passages.Sound: 8/10 Well recorded at least, with some reasonably creepy incidental music.Acting: 2/10 Brad Dourif has been in some bad films over his 38+ years of acting. He has also had many much, much better roles than this; The Lord of the Rings comes to mind. Veteran character actress Elaine Hendrix has had 20 years of better roles in television, plus some movies. The rest of the cast I do not recognise and expect that I never will recognise, since they seem to be non-actors. Hallee Hirsh is a terribly bad actress, and Jordan Andrews is just as useless. Also, the 24-year-old Hirsh (as of 2011) looks much older than her age, and has no business playing a teenager.Screenplay: 2/10 Yikes. Worse conversation than one would find in a bad original high school play. Bad dialog, horrible exposition, sad logical failures, hundreds of continuity errors. The beginning to middle to end progression goes somewhat well, but the rotten dialog and horrible acting ruin the film.
Tony Heck
"My best friend just died, you come out of nowhere, and those things..." Fourteen years after the death of his wife and daughter Michael (Nichols) is forced to revisit the past. When his niece finds a necklace she is attacked and saved by a strange man named Jacob. Soon after, mysteries and secrets are revealed. This is a movie that is for hardcore fans of vampire/demon/zombie type movies. I say that because in order to be able to make it through you have to be fascinated by this type of genre. The acting is horrendous and so distracting that I found it very very difficult to make it through. This is too serious to be a comedy, but not enough to be taken seriously. I was not impressed by this at all, but again, for fans of this type of movie you may like this. Overall, this was almost impossible for me to make it through, but I have never really been all that into this type of movie. I give it a D.
lpevatel
I saw the movie tonight and enjoyed it a lot so here's my take: Pro's: Good special effects (especially for a horror movie). Excellent hour and and a half and more more specifically, great pacing (especially the last 20 or so minutes, which are "rewind material."). Good combination of humor, action, and gore (I'd say there's far more action though (the vfx and action sequences alone are some of the most ambitious I have seen in years and there are some momentary comedic relief scenes, like Makenzie Rosman's use of "adult language" (such a contrast to seeing her as Ruthie in Seventh Heaven)). The use of gore in this movie is just enough to wet the palate of any true genre fan (the last scenes with Sarah killing her own mother when she "turns" is freakishly impossible not to watch. The new actor, Jordan Matthews is beyond convincing as one of the next possible action heroes, as there are far better and more convincing action sequences here than even a movie like Blade. For once, we have a young actor who isn't afraid to get hurt, beat up, and bloodied. Great performance, by genre fave, Brad Dourif (as to be expected). Cons: There could have been stronger story, plot, and character development, so that we got to know a more in depth storyline (maybe it's set up as though we are to discover this in the sequels as the ending most definitely lends itself to insinuating a continued storyline). Also, we basically jump right into the action within the first five minutes of the film, so there isn't much time to set up the storyline (some of this is made up for in the flash back sequences). Also, some of the scenes are so epic, that they make an unusual contrast to some of the "day" scenes in the town. Overall, this is a great popcorn flick.
dkmasochist
The pacing of this film is the most dynamic engagement of theatrical action I have seen in quite some time. One of the main questions that had come to mind when I watched this with a few friends was the origins of the naming from the characters. We were curious about any biblical terminology that could have been potentially associated with the names Jacob and Sarah. Not to mention the whole scenario of Jacob being brought back from the dead, or rather "resurrected." Then there is the concept of having a sword that hones the almighty power of good and destroys all evil that it faces.There is a complex turn in the character mythology as the dichotomy of Jacob and Mathias is revealed by one of the strongest components of the storyline, as Jacob turns evil as the movie closes, leaving a cliffhanger of what could potentially spawn a dramatic context change if they make any sequels. It was a brave choice for Jordan Matthews to take on a role where he turns evil at the end, going toe to toe with one of the masters of evil, Brad Dourif, the voice of Chucky. I was surprised to see Thomas Ian Nicholas take on a role completely separate from his work in the comedy genre as well. It reminded me of when I begin to greatly respect his work in movies like Rules Of Attraction
