Movie Review of the Shrine

My wife and I are trying to catch up on our movie watching while there's still nothing good on TV. However, mostly because we can't really start watching them until the kids go to bed (otherwise it would be too noisy), we often have to watch a movie over the course of two or three days.

We ended up doing that a couple days ago and, after finally finishing the film, we realized it was only 8:30 and decided to start another one. After browsing the movies available via Netflix instant streaming, we settled for a horror movie called The Shrine .

This was the first time I had heard of this movie and, since the description really didn't give us much information, I really didn't know what to expect from it. But, as it turns out, it was actually an OK film.

As an actual horror movie, this film, which is about a journalist who travels to a remote village in Poland with her boyfriend and co-worker to investigate an American disappearance, did lack something. There were a few things that were somewhat startling when they popped up out of nowhere. But, overall, there really wasn't a whole lot that was creepy about it (other than a scene toward the end that looked a lot like The Exorcist ).

However, I do enjoy a good mystery and this film did manage to have that going for it. Since there was no background given, you learn everything at the same time as the characters and, because of that, things like the unmoving cloud bank and the statue inside remain unexplained until the very end. And, since everyone in the village speaks a foreign language and there are no subtitles, it does make it easy to believe they are being hunted down by some sort of evil cult until the truth about what is going on is finally revealed.

As a result of that, while the movie really wasn't all that scary, it did still manage to keep our interest because we wanted to see what would happen next and, more importantly, wanted to know what exactly was going on.

In other words, if you're looking for a good scare, this isn't the movie for you. But, if you are looking for something that is somewhat entertaining, I do recommend taking the time to watch this film.

My Grade: 3 stars out of a possible 5.