It's a shame this didn't turn out better, because the movie is trying to be different than the usual horror. It's just not very good at being different. It's really well shot, and there are some key moments that are really good and would have been memorable moments in a better film.
The film falls down most heavily on narrative. Early on, you will start to wonder if this movie was adapted from a comic or something, since the silly dialogue has that overwrought feeling: self-serious but daft. Once you've been introduced to the collective noun usage of "rotten", the film slowly drips more jargon and symbolism until it starts to fill in the history of its world. You can tell that they decided against putting this exposition upfront because they thought it was be more sophisticated to have the characters reveal it at the gradual pace with which you might mention past events in normal conversation, but you can't wring sophistication from a story like this. Everyone is apparently aware of the enormous supernatural threat, but it hasn't changed the world one bit.
The other giant failing is those very people. With the exception of two women who try to warn idiots not to do the idiotic things that everybody knows not to do, everybody is incredibly stupid. The film's protagonist, Pedro, is hands-down the stupidest character ever to appear in a horror film. I don't care who just popped into your head in a challenge to me saying that; there is no halfwit teenager in the crudest slasher who even comes close to the stupidity of Pedro. It is impossible to care about him because he is so detestably dim. Evil does not need to conquer a world that contains Pedro, for it is already lost.
This is a frustrating film. It shows so much potential and throws it away.
The film falls down most heavily on narrative. Early on, you will start to wonder if this movie was adapted from a comic or something, since the silly dialogue has that overwrought feeling: self-serious but daft. Once you've been introduced to the collective noun usage of "rotten", the film slowly drips more jargon and symbolism until it starts to fill in the history of its world. You can tell that they decided against putting this exposition upfront because they thought it was be more sophisticated to have the characters reveal it at the gradual pace with which you might mention past events in normal conversation, but you can't wring sophistication from a story like this. Everyone is apparently aware of the enormous supernatural threat, but it hasn't changed the world one bit.
The other giant failing is those very people. With the exception of two women who try to warn idiots not to do the idiotic things that everybody knows not to do, everybody is incredibly stupid. The film's protagonist, Pedro, is hands-down the stupidest character ever to appear in a horror film. I don't care who just popped into your head in a challenge to me saying that; there is no halfwit teenager in the crudest slasher who even comes close to the stupidity of Pedro. It is impossible to care about him because he is so detestably dim. Evil does not need to conquer a world that contains Pedro, for it is already lost.
This is a frustrating film. It shows so much potential and throws it away.