The Shrine Review

Need proof that Americans shouldn’t meddle in other people’s affairs? Then watch this movie. Basically it comes down to that if these three Americans did what they were told to do in the first place, they wouldn’t have encountered the dangers that they did in The Shrine.

The Shrine combines a bunch of different horror films into one. Over the course of the film you’ll come up with a list to say this part is like this other film. Even with that in mind though, The Shrine is still interesting. It’s not the most scary horror film that you’ll see but it does include some neat monsters and sequences. There is one moment towards the beginning of the film that will make you jump and that alone makes the movie worth checking out.

The majority of this film takes place in a foreign country with townspeople that talk in their own language. Sadly there aren’t any subtitles for when the townspeople talk. Occasionally they might say something in broken English but seriously not being able to understand what they’re saying hurts the film. As a viewer you end up just starring at the screen hoping that something horrific will happen while you’re hearing gibberish. Maybe the filmmakers wanted the viewer to be clueless like the Americans and thus didn’t include subtitles.

This lack of subtitles does make you question what is going on and that benefits the outcome of the movie. By the end of it there might be another reason why there weren’t subtitles included. However if the filmmakers knew going in that there weren’t going to be subtitles, they really should have had the Americans talk more while the foreigners talked. There are sequences that feel like they go on for 5 minutes without a single word of English.

Clearly that’s the biggest problem that I had with the film. The Shrine isn’t the best horror but it has its moments of intrigue.

The Shrine will become available on IFC Midnight, via Comcast, Cox, Cablevision, Time Warner, and Bright House starting July 15.

Author: DaveWeLike

I'm the editor of StuffWeLike.com.

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