Leofwine_draca THE SHRINE is a Canadian horror film set in Poland. To begin with the plot is nothing special, involving the usual trio of American tourists abroad who find themselves in trouble when they stumble upon a grove containing an ancient shrine that has something evil about it. The second half of the film gets a little more interesting by skewing the usual angles and builds to an impressively high octane climax.The problem with this film is the lack of budget. There isn't much money to go around so the director substitutes noise with quality. This is one of the noisiest horror films I can remember watching and particularly at the climax it gets very headache-inducing. Plus the usual EXORCIST clichés are played out again which is a bit wearying. On the plus side, there's some very graphic gore in this film and it's nasty stuff indeed, wince-inducing in places. Shawn Ashmore's twin brother Aaron stars.

BA_Harrison Investigative journalist Carmen (Cindy Sampson) travels to Kozki, Poland, with her photographer boyfriend Marcus (Aaron Ashmore) and intern Sara (Meghan Heffern) to try and find out what has happened to a missing American backpacker. There, they experience hostility from the locals, who are harbouring a terrible secret hidden by a strange fog in the middle of the woods.At first it seems like The Shrine is simply another xenophobic horror, existing to perpetuate the myth that rural Eastern Europe is a backwards hellhole, and anyone from America foolish enough to pay a visit is destined to die a horrible death. In a rather neat twist at the end of the film, it transpires that the hostile locals are in fact the good guys (of a sort), desperately trying to prevent a terrible evil from possessing unwary travellers and escaping their village.This neat, unexpected turnaround of events helps prevent the film from being a total disaster, but the fact is that, for much of the time, this is frustratingly routine stuff, the American characters predictably ignoring all warnings, doing their utmost to ensure that they wind up dead, and the Polish villagers acting in a threatening manner and carrying out grisly rituals, when all they really need to do is quarantine the area that is cursed (build a big wall or fence around the foggy part of the woods—problem solved).What I learnt from The Shrine: all Polish 10-year-olds can confidently converse in English.

Fella_shibby Good direction by Jon Knautz (Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer). Awesome cinematography by James Griffith (Masked saint, Air emergency). The imagery of the forest in the fog is especially haunting and the environment of Poland is simply chilling in itself. Fine editing by Matthew Brulotte (Jack Brooks, Chillerama, girl house). I liked the film and found it to be very creepy and suspenseful. The star cast includes Aaron Ashmore (Regression, The Thaw). Cindy Sampson (The Factory, Swamp Devil). Meghan Heffern (Home Sweet Home, Chloe, The Fog). Trevor Matthews (Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer, Girl House). The movie is very different from ur regular possession movies. Its brutal, creepy, suspenseful plot with an awesome twist. The forest n the whole village itself looked eerie n isolated. More movies like these shud be made. Its a must watch for horror fans. There is a very creepy scene in the forest.

jlthornb51 A powerful horror film that features a stunningly moving performance by Aaron Ashmore and which is imaginatively directed by John Knautz. This motion picture is dark and disturbing, its atmospheric angst benefiting dramatically from what appears to be authentic Polish locations. When crazed fanatics from a insane Polish cult threaten the lives of an innocent group of tourists, the results are horrific, suspenseful, and unrelentingly awful in what is a very good horror film indeed. The imagery of the forest in the fog is especially haunting and the environment of Poland is simply chilling in itself. Flawed but well done movie of superior quality.