Showing posts with label Louise Fletcher. Show all posts

Friday, October 11, 2013

The Last Sin Eater

The Last Sin Eater (2007)

PG-13 - 117 min - Drama - 9 February 2007
Big Blue Sky Rating : 5.5/10

Director : Michael Landon Jr.
Writers : Brian Bird, Michael Landon Jr.
Stars : Louise Fletcher, Henry Thomas, Liana Liberato, Soren Fulton

Appalachia, 1850. A generation ago a group of Welshmen came across the ocean to build a new existence and with them they brought their own traditions and rituals. One of them is the sin eater, a mysterious person, forced to live in the woods and mountains, only to come out when somebody dies. He then pawns his own soul to take away the sins of the deceased. 10 year old Cadi Forbes meets the sin eater for the first time at the funeral of her grandmother and is immediately intrigued. Cadi is torn by guilt over the death of her little sister Elen and wants the sin eater to redeem her. With the help of Fagen, son of the ruthless village leader Brogen, and the imaginary Lilybet, she starts a search to find him, but by doing so Cadi slowly, but surely unravels dark and terrible secrets.

Flawed but deeply felt

This is a film that requires some willing suspension of disbelief, since its makers seem possibly to be prey to the fallacy that it enough that Christian art be Christian. Which is not to say that they didn't get most of it right, just that their missteps are so avoidable. Fortunately, most (like the young star's unbelievably sumptuous wardrobe) weren't major distractions for me. But the crudeness of the special effects scenes (which, thankfully, are brief) did disrupt my experience, as I wondered, "What were they thinking that this looked right to them?"

Most of the cast does a truly fine job, with all the central characters (the Forbes family and Fagan Kai) getting moving, heartfelt and convincing performances from their players. There's a relationship here between quantity of screen time and quality, so the minor characters remain pretty two-dimensional, though not distractingly so.

The cinematography (except for special effects, as noted) is beautiful and effective, and successfully evokes the feeling of confining, dense Appalachian woods and isolation.

Bottom line: despite its minor shortcomings, this is an effective, affecting, non-preachy and original retelling of one of the central concepts of Christianity.

Watch The Last Sin Eater Trailer :

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Sunday, October 6, 2013

Cassadaga

Cassadaga (2011)

R - 108 min - Horror, Thriller - 11 October 2013
Big Blue Sky Rating : 5.1/10

Director : Anthony DiBlasi
Writers : Bruce Wood, Scott Poiley
Stars : Kelen Coleman, Avis-Marie Barnes, Kevin Alejandro, Louise Fletcher

Devastated by the death of her younger sister, Lily Morel seeks solace at the spiritualist community of Cassadaga. But instead of finding closure, she contacts something else - the vengeful ghost of a murdered young woman. With her life crumbling all-around her, Lily races to unravel the mysterious circumstances surrounding the woman's death - a task that will bring her face-to-face with a sadistic serial killer known only as "Geppetto".

Underwhelming, but not bad.

This is a pretty hard film to review.

I'm not a great fan of gore or murder mysteries (even though I appreciate a gem once in a while), more of a fan of supernatural horror. And that's just it. Even though there are disturbing and bloody scenes, "Cassadaga" is not a gore film. There is a mystery, but it isn't carried out in a very interesting or suspenseful way. There are supernatural elements, but they're not really inventive and don't carry the film. It's a mixture of all these things, and while it's a little underwhelming, it does manage to stay intact.

Coleman isn't bad in this, but I guess I'm just not a fan. She is the main character, and for some reason she was the most uninteresting to me. When that happens, I can not enjoy a horror movie. I guess the dialogue can be partly blamed: there's some too dumb and obvious exposition. When a character recaps his/her life and motivations to another in a single conversation, that usually always fails and feels forced. You instantly get out of the mood when characters are treated as cheap toys. Yes, I want to know the character, but forcing me in the worst way possible is not going to do it. Coleman's character isn't the only one to do this, by the way. Anyway, despite me not liking Coleman's (and a certain child actor's) performance that much, acting is not a problem for this movie, most actors do a fine job.

I would've wanted something more. A more thrilling mystery, perhaps. More focus on the effective side of paranormal, not just the obvious. Less common camera angles for used-up scare tactics, less bad conversations.

I may sound like I hate this movie. I really don't. It's not terrible in any way and it's certainly better than your average horror fest with idiot teenagers getting slaughtered. There's enough disturbing material for a horror fan to at least see this once. I probably won't watch this again, but hey, I've seen worse. If you can find it real cheap, might be worth a shot. My 10+ euros were a little too much.

Watch Cassadaga Trailer :

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The Last Sin Eater

The Last Sin Eater (2007)

PG-13 - 117 min - Drama - 9 February 2007
Big Blue Sky Rating : 5.5/10

Director : Michael Landon Jr.
Writers : Brian Bird, Michael Landon Jr.
Stars : Louise Fletcher, Henry Thomas, Liana Liberato, Soren Fulton

Unconvincing, offensive, and trite film

My husband and I were intrigued by the title of this film because he knew that the concept of the "sin eater" was an old Welsh custom, and we were also interested in Appalachian stories. We did not know when we ordered the film that it was from "Fox Faith" and that it is basically evangelical Christian propaganda filmed in Utah. We found some of the acting to be earnest, but other than that the film was unconvincing, offensive, and trite. My husband teaches Welsh, and the film's "Welsh" accents were pathetic. And the idea that the Welsh settlers in 1830 to 1850 Appalachia were just superstitious Celts ignorant of the Bible and Christianity, and lacking any Christian values and virtues, is totally false, misleading and just plain bad history!