The film was shot in the framework of modern independent horror cinema. Much contributes to this presence of a number of recognizable personalities of this direction, for example, as an old Angus Scrimm in the image of a soulful preacher resembling an angel, which is not accidental for the plot. There is also his colleague in one famous franchise – Reggie Bannister (Reggie Bannister), depicting the owner of the bar, where most of the action takes place, will appear in funny episodes Michael Berryman (Michael Berryman) with his memorable appearance, and “Scream Queen” Debbie Rochon (Debbie Rochon) in such an unusual role of a sweet saint, inviting to appeal to God, along the way treating a piece of delicious pie.
However, the director-screenwriter very pleasantly surprises the viewer, acting out on the screen not a bloody horror with admixture of black comedy and liters of fake blood or a black thriller about the very bottom of the human marginal society of avid drug addicts and alcoholics, because there is a place appearing sneaky pathetic demons, infernal red horned Satan on the throne in the company of seductive figurative succubes, systematic murders, and much more. This is all tinsel for the author, attracting bright colors and enhancing the effect of feeding the core thought. The main thing in the production is indicatively simple philosophical motifs about sinners and their search for God as a symbol of peace, goodness, peace for rushing confused souls.
The purifying catharsis is achieved by the above-mentioned demonstration of all the dirt in which morally degraded people are constantly found. Two central heroes of the story in the form of a drug addict girl and an uncontrollable alcoholic killer are stomped in the endless vicious circle of earthly hell, immersing the viewer in the persistently palpable atmosphere of a painful depressive thriller, where, it would seem, something bright is beyond the control of. Naturalistic horrors are often brought to a whitish thrash effect in the surreal grotesque, painfully and unflatteringly shooting sharp social overtones, for example, inflated bloody, like a bad nightmare scene of underground abortion. Only now and then, even at the very bottom of the pitch darkness of the soul, the director places the sprouts of a saving chance to change everything, but he does it wisely, playing the television hysteria of charlatans in sarcasm with calls for humanity to immediately repent before it is too late.
The eternal struggle between the two constants of Good and Evil, shown in the film through the prism of mysticism with God and Satan, here successfully does not propagate religion or its absence, does not hang labels, does not make you memorize commandments or sell your soul to demons, but simply shows that all bad and good deeds are always done only by man himself, no matter who has wings or horns behind him. They can only give advice or seduce, but the choice is inviolable. Freedom of choice is always reserved for the individual, no matter how hardened he is. An important director’s message is to try to convey this point of view by providing it with purely cinematic thriller instruments.
As a result, the picture, initially hiding behind horrors, turns out to be much deeper as an existential drama, let it explore, I think, the truth that it is never too late to become a little kinder, to realize the wrongness of some of your own actions, although it requires great strength to stop pitying yourself and fence yourself off from the help of others. It is always easier to be weak evil than strong good. Thus, for the ideological content of the film is able to cause a positive audience assessment, at least in my memory of a longtime b-movie lover, not every time you meet something moral and deep in a bloody thrash-bug, and usually never. Therefore, I sincerely liked the work, but I liked for the essence of the story about human growth over oneself, the cordiality of empathizing with those who stumbled, and not as something that there is a desire to review or single out for a masterful decoration. If you approach the viewing exclusively in terms of straightforward horror, without looking for any ideas, then we have a typical semi-amateur horror film with ketchup and cheap makeup and then in places drowned in a drawn-out drama. I think it’s all about the viewer’s individual position and expectations, so the score can vary from lower to higher.
6 out of 10