Sin Eater (2022) by Carmelo Chimera

Director: Carmelo Chimera

Year: 2022

Country: USA

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Cult

Plot:

After surviving a devastating car accident, a woman finds herself rehabilitating at a stranger’s house where she’s soon embroiled in a mystery about a strange demon cult throughout the town, and upon learning their true intentions tries to save herself from their next sacrifice.

Review:

This one wasn’t too bad for what it is. Among the more likable factors here is the somewhat enjoyable setup here which provides for a chilling enough time here. The first half, featuring a fine mysterious build-up of life at their house featuring the overtly religious atmosphere with their strange manners and customs, conflicts with her more straightforward desire to make herself useful while she recuperates. There’s a highly impressive tone generated here as this all comes together quite well with the various dreams she has involving their strange traditions and her flashbacks to the even more bizarre religious background that combines together into an overall fine setup.

With this fine setup established, this one comes off with a lot of fun overall in the big encounter featuring the final stages of their plan. Realizing what their intentions are towards her, that revelation allows this to turn into a solid series of psychological tortures involving her being forced into the ceremonial space below the house before getting the twist involving the cult’s leader trying to take over. The chaos that emerges from this includes a nice slew of attacks where she tries to fight back, the intensity of their attempts to carry out their plans despite it all going wrong, and the fine ending that all provide plenty of low-level indie gore that generates quite a lot to enjoy here.

There are some issues here that hold it back. One of the biggest detriments here is the outright bland pacing here that tries to hide the generally predictable finale it’s trying to hide. Keeping itself fun enough with the action at that p[int doesn’t hide the fact that this one tends to become quite obvious where this is going as the series of reveals here point to some hard-to-miss setups which all give this a lethargic tempo. It’s also quite low on scares anyway so there‘s even more of a dreary feeling to this one which all manages to bring the energy level down during the first half. As well as some instances of the budget betraying it, these issues are the ones that bring it down the most.

Overview: ***/5

A generally fun and enjoyable indie effort that has a lot more going for it than expected, those who appreciate this kind of genre effort will have much more going for them with this one. Those that enjoy this kind of indie effort o are not put off by the flaws present will have some fun with this one while most others that don’t go for this style or approach should heed caution.