Director: Charlie Steeds
Year: 2022
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: The Haunting of Bloody Tower
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Following the discovery of dead princess, the English royal court is thrown into disarray trying to figure out the culprit and resolves to any means necessary to figure it out which soon turns into a bloodsoaked power struggle from the various participants while the supernatural revenge takes place.
Review:
This was a fairly solid if somewhat flawed genre effort. One of the best features of the film comes from the strong setup and usage of its multiple storylines to tell a fun enough story. The initial intrigue with the discovery of the bodies and how everything is thrown into chaos with this as the race to uncover the truth to unearth the responsible party is handled well-enough as this all serves the introduction dor the fantastic series of torture scenes which provide the film with tons of graphic encounters. As well, there’s a fun secondary series of storylines with the medium able to talk to the dead and the beliefs he causes with other individuals who are rightfully skeptical of this power due to the supernatural shenanigans it brings about while also featuring a slew of haunting scenes with ghosts targeting others for what happened to them while they were alive and the political intonations that come about where the various figures around the throne plot to steal it out for themselves, giving the film a lot to like in this regard.
The other likable factor to be had with this one is the impressive series of torture scenes that are played out here with a nice bit of gore featured throughout here. As the medieval devices are put through their paces including searing-hot tongs pressed into the body, flogging, dumped with scalding water, and being hung in stocks, there’s an impressive set of setpieces here that provide for a truly effective touch of old-school mayhem. This is all especially more prominent the longer this goes on as the madness to keep the secrets hidden and the quest for the power of the throne begins in earnest, there’s a fun tone to these scenes as it takes an air of authenticity to the scenes as it all leads to the fun encounters at the end which is quite impressive. Alongside this fun set-up, there’s quite a lot to like with the series of ghostly encounters within here, as the scenes needed to tell what his power is capable of producing a slew of fantastic hauntings not just in the early half here but a fantastic finale which is incredibly fun here. These all provide a strong series of likable factors to this one.
There are some slight issues with this one. Among the biggest drawbacks of it is the convoluted plot wth too many sidestories going on for this type of feature. There’s a bit here involving the political aspirations for four different participants, a series of allegiance-switching that takes place and even a series of reveals that take place here which focus on trying to get all these factors established and revealed. However, it really devolves itnto having way too many things to keep track of when it doesn’t need to be dropping so many issues at the viewer as it could’ve streamlined these factors to keep straight so it all gets somewhat confusing. The other issue with this one is the flimsy medieval pretense outside of the torture dungeon with some rather obvious factors here making it known that there’s a low-budget featured here that does stand out at points to be the big detriments with this one.
Overview: ****/5
A spectacularly enjoyable period-set genre effort, there’s not a whole lot to dislike here with some barely detrimental aspects that do appear but are overwhelmed by the number of positives on display. Those who enjoy this type of genre effort, are curious about the style attempted here or are fans of the creative crew will have quite a lot to enjoy here while most others out there should heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment