The Devil's Curse (2008)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Best movie of this year hands down!

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Jock (Watson) throws a wild party that has him and his four roommates out on the street without warning. A buddy tips him off that a former Catholic school is abandoned and he could crash there for a short time. The five roommates go in and soon learn the sinister past of the place that lead to students committing suicide. They hear noises and sounds in the walls and feel they are not alone. They start turning up dead until Alice (Buring) is the only one left. Or is she? The answer is who knows? This screenplay attempts a few too many twists until the viewer is confused by the end and doesn't care. The movie builds some nice early atmosphere but once the students are in the old school the movie slows down and delivers nothing in the way of chills. Considering the creepy location, Director Toni Harman should have been laying on the jumps and chills the entire running time. Instead this one just sits there twisting the story around and around. Sooner or later you have to deliver some scares.

I've had this movie for a while but never got around to watching it until tonight. The description sounded great and I was feeling in the mood for a good scare via theological horror.The ambiance of this movie is great. The lighting is was well done, although, there were a few scenes that seemed unrealistically well-lit for the depicted situation. The color schemes fit the mood of the movie perfectly with dull and dreary shades. The sound was also superb. The music really complemented the scenes.The storyline was excellent, at least until the end. Basically, there are five college-aged kids, including three BEAUTIFUL busty chicks. The find an abandoned school that was the scene of a horrible multi-suicide and then one by one, they start dying off. For the most part, all the events of the movie are great and it kept my attention. The ending, however, seemed to be rushed. I consider it like this: the writers were smoking really good weed and wrote this great story but then ran out of weed and just ended their script.I didn't feel much emotion while watching this movie. I was scared a few times and it was suspenseful at moments but I didn't feel any strong emotions, which I consider a fail for the movie.I recommend this movie if you like psychological movies; although, I don't think it's nearly as good as a lot of other pysch movies. I think most people will be disappointed in the ending. To me, the best part of this movie, sadly, is the three beautiful women in it. So sad, so sad.

"The Devil's Curse" was a rather uninvolving and quite boring horror film.**SPOILERS**Kicked out of their apartment, friends Alice, (MyAnna Buring) Jock, (Clayton Watson) Scott, (Mark Joseph) Timmy, (Nathalie Pownall) and Jazz, (Rhea Bailey) manage to find a new home for the weekend in a mansion vacated for a while, and decide to move in until they can find other housing. As they continue to room together within the building, they start to believe that something is wrong and something is inside with them as there's a story about the building being used by a group of Catholic students to conjure a demon within but bailed and left it trapped inside. When they become aware of something inside and it begins to hunt them down one-by-one planting each of the deaths as suicides, they try whatever they can to get out of the building before they meet a grisly end.The Good News: There wasn't a whole lot here that really worked. One of the biggest pluses is that the film does a great job at invoking a superb atmosphere upon which it generates its few scare-attempts. With the multi-tiered flooring, dark, narrow corridors and cramped rooms, it makes for an effective backdrop in here to hang the scares off of. This is mostly evident in the early scenes, where they go around investigating the rooms and the later scenes of the set-up, which are done really well with the whispering voices, the power-outage and the scuttling noises coming from upstairs despite knowing they're alone in the house. Later scenes, most specifically the frantic running through the house trying to get out after being locked in and the darkness they're in while doing so, makes for a creepy time, and the constant use of demonic growls and hissing static over their radios is an extra bit to spice it up. The most impactful suspense scene is easily their crawl through the tunnel within the basement, as the main darkness, fluorescent illumination and tight, cramped space makes for a spectacular scare that is nicely bolstered by its implications from previous actions and extended, drawn-out scale that really allows for a frightening experience, to make for a great time. The finale, where the survivors are wandering through the house and exploring the remains slowly through the darkened house, the radio calls that go unheard, as well as all the creepy goings-on that are showcased by the video-cameras that are able to capture everything possible and turning it into a fantastic scare, are just plain chilling and perfectly encompass that feeling of dread and suspense that the film attempts to maintain throughout. The video-camera scenes are the best bit, with the deceptions played by their doubles, the violent actions undertaken by both, and the rather grand twist it employs due to this, is rather great and really much more enjoyable than possible. It even has a little bit of action present in the main flashback scene with the demon-aftermath attacks and the great freak-out bit in the bathroom that is quite good. The last plus in here is the rather sleazy shower scene, with the lesbian implications, nudity and much more. These here are all that work.The Bad News: There was a lot of things with this one that lower it drastically. The biggest flaw to this one is the fact that it fits into all the usual British ghost films that were made around the time, where the on-screen action is so devoid of energy that it's increasingly frustrating to get into the film as it goes on. Whether it's by not actually showing anything designed to generate chills or just employing a laid-back style that keeps things from really going forward with anything on-screen, the film just feels so drawn-out and longer than it really is that there's just no other feeling to be found during the majority of its running-time than boredom. This is a common occurrence in such films, and this one falls into that trap as well, making for a really troubling spot to get over incredibly early on. This is certainly confounded even more by the film's focus on such trivial and inane plot-points that no scares really have the chance to get developed, mainly the aspect among the men to be able to score with the women and turning it into a game, which is so irritating and aggravating that the continued use of it is just that much more troubling than it really is, not worthy of being a central plot-point but more of a background element yet here is brought forward so that it's really boring during the course of the film as it's placed instead of generating scares. The fact that it does try to generate scares, but the fact that all we get is just voices without anything else gets old after the twentieth-time or so of such a tactic, and this really needed more time, taken up unfortunately by the other factors, to really try that. The film also suffers from a severe lack of explanations for many different parts, mainly the need for the demon to make its kills as suicide-victims. It rather easily could've done something unique here to generate more suspense, but instead such an important part of the film is glossed over and leaves a huge missed opportunity. The last flaw here is the finale, which just doesn't make any sense. Hardly anything that happens is explained, and all the different elements coming together are just utterly confusing. These here are the film's problems.The Final Verdict: A great example of the common British ghost movies, this one doesn't have enough good stuff to overcome the usual trappings that are present in such films. Really only recommended to those who find these types of cerebral films appealing, while those looking for a little more energy should look elsewhere.Rated R: Graphic Language, Nudity and Graphic Violence

I have seen a lot of comments and reviews about this film online and people seem to either love Credo or hate it. From what I can tell, if you're looking for slasher gore then you're not going to like Credo. There's quite a bit of blood, but it's not the in your face kind of blood. But if you like eerie suspense with a great twist, then this film hits the spot.The whole film is one long slow release of tension and, what's more, it doesn't rely on unnecessary jump moments or pointless sex scenes to stimulate. The thing I like the most about this film, is the film makers' bravery in keeping the beast/monster/ghost off screen. This does mean that you don't get big action sequences, but that's a refreshing change in my book. Most of the film takes place in a nightmarish darkness with only the eerie glow of torchlight to relieve the tension. The sound design is fantastic and reminds me of the scares I got in Blair Witch.I'd like to applaud the film makers for having the guts to make a film that doesn't spoon feed the audience. It's nice to actually be asked to use my own brain for once! For a low budget indie, this film puts most of the others in the shade.