Review: The Shrine 2010

“The Shrine” is a solid horror movie, the acting is fine, the story is original and confusing enough to keep you intrigued and guessing until the explanation… and then the film really gets going! It maybe not be a masterpiece, but it isn’t trying to be one, not everything can be ‘phenomenal’, but that doesn’t mean ‘great’ isn’t good enough! I also want to point out that the critics on ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ give it 3/5, despite the unfair 34% it is shown to have received… “The Shrine” is well done, dammit! It’s even scary in parts, and I really enjoyed it.
“The Shrine” follows a group of young adults, lead by an amateur reporter, who travel to Poland to investigate a series of disappearances of American tourists. Once there, they notice a strange dense mist that seems to never dissipate, hanging in a particular area of the woods and attempt to investigate it. The townspeople are less than welcoming to begin with, but when they see them heading in the direction of the mysterious fog, they become hostile, threatening the group and demanding they leave immediately. But, naturally, the group manages to circumvent the villagers and two of them end up entering the fog… Now, you may think you know where this story is heading, but, trust me, I doubt that. This film may not be perfect, but it is certainly not predictable. Another aspect of this movie that I actually really liked was that the Polish speaking parts are not subtitled, that way, provided the viewer doesn’t speak Polish, the viewer is made to feel, at least in part, just as scared and confused as the non-Polish-speaking tourists. This is especially effective when things turn bad for our main characters, they don’t know what’s going on, and we don’t know any more than they do! Very well done. The best part about “The Shrine” is that it totally explains itself by the ends, I always hated movies with vague or unfinished endings, but this movie leaves nothing to our imagination, and I really appreciate that. Highly recommended to all horror fans.