The Tomb (2009)

Fantastic!

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Well respected author and professor, Jonathan Merrik (Wes Bentley) is drawn to the allure of exotic grad student( into the occult, her family alchemists), Ligeia(Sofya Skya), who has almost perfected the process of "seizing souls", extracting the lifeforce of victims so she can retain her youth and vitality. Young and rich (both his parents are deceased), Jonathan is engaged to a lovely young woman named Rowena(Kaitlin Doubleday), whose father is a pathetic drunk (Michael Madsen). Dark and brooding, Ligeia captivates Jonathan; he's overwhelmed by her haunting beauty and decadent nature. Rowena is an understudy singer who is charming, with a bright wattage smile, the perfect mate for a successful young professor with the world as his oyster, yet Jonathan has his doubts (he's further complicated by how smitten he is with Ligeia). Seductively capturing Jonathan by addressing the darkness inside him, Ligeia will not only attain his hand in marriage but convince him to purchase her old family's manor. Ligeia needs to find a means to keep her illness from overtaking her and this will drive and motivate by whatever methods are necessary. Meanwhile Rowena pines for Jonathan and will hope to win back his heart once Ligeia's true self emerges once and for all revealing to him that he had made a mistake choosing her as his bride. When Ligeia hurls herself from atop the manor to the sidewalk, Jonathan attempts to move on and does so with Rowena. But, Merrik hasn't heard the last of Ligeia who plans to take control of Rowena's body so she can continue to live on, absent a weakened fleshly vessel, but he will fight to win his second bride back. With Eric Roberts wasted in a nothing minuscule part as the manor's Russian caretaker and the vacuous Makenzi Rosman as his troubled niece who live near Jonathan and Ligeia. Ligeia will use Rosman and get rid of Roberts so she can get close to Rowena. Merrik will seek Rosman's help once Rowena has been possessed by Ligeia. In the silly plot of THE TOMB, the spirits are sucked from the bodies of victims, contained in little jars and held in a cabinet by Ligeia, who later stores them for safe keeping hoping they will assist in her experiments for immortality. The spirits of those robbed of their lifeforce appear in a green tinted mist(the face shown as an image within this mist). Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa has a small role as the University Chancellor who Ligeia must destroy in order to keep his knowledge of her diabolical experiments a secret. Bentley barely registers a pulse in his performance leaving Doubleday the task of garnering sympathy from the viewer. Skya is quite easy on the eyes and Doubleday's no slouch(and her transformation once Skya takes over is actually quite convincing)helping to give this movie some much needed juice.

I don't know what the heck that was, or why people need to rip off Edgar Allen Poe for ideas, other than he's in the Public Domain and won't ask for a royalty! The plot, which kind of echoes Poe, is that an English professor is enticed from his engagement to a singer to a sultry Goth babe from Russia, and is convinced to use his immense wealth to rebuy her Russian estate while she looks for ways to extend her mortality through magic and science. What we get is a confused mess of body swaps and the kings of Direct to DVD, Michael Madsen and Eric Roberts, playing largely unnecessary supporting characters.Other than that, some parts of the film look quite good for a low-budget made in Eastern Europe mess...

I always have high hopes for anything based on Poe's work or that of Lovecraft, yet always seem let down. If Dario Argento or any worthwhile Italian Director would have handled this poorly drafted script, it would have probably gotten the treatment it needed. I had to watch it in two parts because I fell asleep. Slow paced, wooden NPC style acting, and predictable character development and plot twists that are better suited for an adventure or RPG video game than a feature film.But I did give it a few stars! One for beautiful art direction and locations. Another one for the actresses, they were all beautiful and pleasant to watch even during their worst acting moments. Another one for the cinematography and special effects used aptly within the budget, although the style of the film is predominantly visual and better suited for a music video production or in-game cut scenes. Tighter editing and either a revised or shortened script would have helped this film immensely. And finally one for the perpetual references to Absinthe, as it is one of my fondest libations.To sum it up, it's worth a watch if you can catch it on cable at like a 2am time slot or perhaps a red box rental, but nothing to go out of your way to see.

OK ... So it tried not to be a typical worthless neu-horror failure ... But it fell for all the usual things ... Drained colour flashbacks ... Naff unnecessary quick cut editing ( at times ) ... Acting that would make the local drama group blush ... And a storyline that could ( possibly ) have been interesting if it hadn't been written like a bad soft porn movie I have a feeling the budget on this was actually bigger than it looked ... Some of the settings were quite grand for a low budget film ... Unfortunately the director didn't know what to do with any of them How on earth do these awful directors and script writers get to make these films ... They are just a waste of time and money ... Everyone involved with the production I presume got paid ... Because that is the only thing this sort of junk does ... Pay workers As long as the financiers don't expect people to pay money to watch this dross ... THAT WOULD BE GOING TO FAR