Writer: Jon Knautz, Brendan Moore, Trevor Matthews (Screenplay) Jon Knautz, Brendon Moore (Story)
Starring: Aaron Ashmore, Cindy Sampson, Meghan Heffern, Trevor Matthews, Vieslav Krystyan, Laura de Carteret
Plot: Two female journalists and a photographer travel to Europe to investigate a series of mysterious disappearances, only to find themselves embroiled in a struggle against a kind of evil they never expected.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Easy but not Shocking Horror
Story: The Shrine starts as young ambitious reporter Carmen (Sampson) learns of a string of missing people in a small town in Poland, going against her bosses wishes she takes her boyfriend Marcus (Ashmore) and her intern Sara (Heffern) to this Polish town.
Getting a less than warm welcome, the three find themselves pushed to leave, but Carmen’s determination to get a story puts their lives in danger once they enter a mysterious mist or fog surrounding one part of the forest. When their snooping gets them into trouble the three will learn what is really happening in this small town.
Thoughts on The Shrine
Characters/Performance – Marcus is a photography boyfriend of Carmen who reluctantly agrees to go on the trip to help their relationship but does believe it’s all for work, he isn’t happy when he learns the truth but will fight to save Carmen’s life. Carmen is the ambitious reporter that brings her team to this small town in search of answers about disappearances through the years. She will do anything for the story. Sara is an intern working for Carmen that see this story as a chance to get ahead in her career but her naïve nature leaves her being designed as the disposable one of the three. The cult figures are all what you would expect in a film like this not coming off overly original in anyway.
Performance wise, Aaron Ashmore is fine without hitting the heights we know he can, the same goes for the whole cast, they are fine without being great.
Story – The story is easily a by the book horror, group of Americans find themselves in a new country where they must fight to survive against the enemy there. It offers very little new to the world of storytelling and is easily an ABC into horror.
Horror – This falls into the horror genre of being captured and needing to survive, the only scare comes from not knowing an easy way out of trouble they find themselves in.
Settings – The remote town works on two fronts, it helps with the budget and shows us just how trapped our characters will be.
Special Effects – All of the effects come off very basic, they are not needed too often and work when required.
Final Thoughts – This is a simple horror that can be enjoyed without being overly impressive but can be enjoyed by the horrors fans out there.
Overall: One for late night tv
Rating