Director: Jason Horton
Year: 2018
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: 5 Sins
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Returning home for the holidays, a woman trying to move past her dysfunctional upbringing finds herself under the effects of a deadly curse that causes her to die only to get resurrected leading to an eventual demonic possession, forcing her to find out how to stop it from happening.
Review:
For the most part, this here wasn’t too bad of an effort. One of the more intriguing efforts here is the gradual build-up done here to showcase the possession has taken hold and gone into effect. This is mainly due to the interesting main story where we come to discover the Aztec folklore about the possessed containing several different aspects to a human soul that have to be conquered in order for the demonic entities to then have full power over a person in the afterlife, a wholly unique take on the constructs of a human soul. This is touched on nicely in the pre-credits sequence with the scientists discovering the central tomb which then carries on into the rest of the film by featuring the various sights of her coming under its effects where it shows her dying in graphic ways resulting in plenty of graphic and gruesome sequences of her body breaking apart such as her skin breaking open or her eyeball dangling in it’s socket.
These are mostly due to a really enjoyable amount of action present which moves this one along, from the home invasion sequence where she takes out the thugs trying to rob her where we get to see the grisly aftermath, a fine torment sequence of the demons playing with her by showing her friends being tortured and a chilling sequence in her home where she’s assaulted by various possessed figures around the house before the demons appear before her to chase her around the various locations she tries to escape. That leads into the absolutely stellar finale where the zombies are brought into the mix to chase her which adds some great action and bloody gore into the mix before the final confrontation with the main demon which gives this enough to like to hold off the few flaws present.
The biggest issue to be had here is the utterly bland and awful pacing in the first half where it allows the various plot devices to get spelled out which is fine since the film takes forever to get this kind of complicated setup exposed. However, that just makes the film insanely boring to get these storylines developed so that the scenes of her meeting with the other family members at the funeral or the different appointments we see of her going around town which just become so bland after a while that the film becomes a slough to get started on. Then attempting to spell out the complex part of the storyline inferring the pass of the curse onto her that the film becomes troublesome to find. That isn’t helped along by the film’s incessantly low-budget nature of the film where it seems way too ambitious a concept for this which is enhanced by the digital effects and background style look which gives this the look and feel of a much lower-budgeted film. These here are what really hold this back.
Overview: ** 1/2/5
With a great concept and some intriguing elements that are able to hold this one up over it’s low-budget concept that’s too ambitious for what it’s trying to do, this one is far more watchable than expected. Give it a shot if you’re into these kinds of films or willing to give it a chance, while those that don’t appreciate this kind of film should heed caution with this one.
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