The description I read of this movie and the fact that it has only just been released on video recently is what piqued my interest in watching it. I didn’t even realize until about ten minutes ago that it was a prequel to another movie called Malevolence. I guess it’s a good thing that I didn’t watch that other movie because the reviews for this movie are better, but I assume that it explains why some things were left unanswered. Doesn’t look like I’ll be watching the original movie though, because this one wasn’t good enough to justify watching more about the character, and you know how much I hate wasting time watching bad movies!

This movie was the inspiration for a Third Eye Blind song, little known fact right there.

It’s 1989 and we see a little kid, played by Spencer List, abducted from his backyard while we hear his mom talking to a nurse about the child’s condition, which I can’t remember the name of at the moment because I think it’s made up. Basically, this little kid can’t feel things so he is susceptible to cuts and bruises without him knowing. The guy who kidnaps him is clearly not a nice guy, and over the next five years, this child watches the old guy kidnap, torture, and sacrifice young girls. We then get to see Allison, played by Alexandra Daddario, move in with her uncle, played by Michael Biehn, somewhere in Pennsylvania. Despite being miles apart, Allison and her uncle are neighbors with an old, abandoned slaughterhouse where the little kid, who is apparently named Martin, lives. Allison goes for a run and sees Martin in the slaughterhouse, and while exploring the building, sees multiple cow skulls, sometimes attached to human skeletons, as well as a diary that chronicles the torturer’s torturings. She is then captured by the old man torture guy who throws her in a freezer and tells her to “Chill out”…okay that doesn’t happen, but it probably happened in Batman and Robin. As her uncle comes to look for her, he gets shot and killed. Damn. Martin aides her in her escape from the freezer, but it doesn’t last long. This is around the time where some of the details get foggy. I think she is able to wound the guy who kidnapped her along the way, but I know that the little kid is the one to finish him off. When you think Allison is safe back at her uncle’s house, Martin kills her and the rest of the family, then sets the building on fire. Don’t worry though, the puppy makes it out safely. Did I mention there was a puppy? Well there was, and it was awesome.

This movie was so very, very close to being something more than it was. I was so close to considering this movie a movie that I “liked”, as opposed to one I thought was “not bad”. One thing I liked was the overall look of the film, and I enjoyed the way that director Stevan Mena really took advantage of all the wide open spaces you’d find in rural Pennsylvania. Although I knew I wasn’t watching Planet Earth, sometimes I felt like I was because of the cinematography and the way the isolation and remoteness of the locations were filmed. This film also successfully combined not just the concept of a teen having to adjust to life in rural Pennsylvania after the death of her parents, but also told the story of the life of a child being brought up with a psycho torture guy who may or may not be a religious fanatic. As if this wasn’t enough, there was another concept that was brought up that was only hinted at, that had they explored further, I would have enjoyed much more.

LOOK AT HOW CREEPY AND AWESOME THIS LOOKS!

Oh, you wanted to know what that concept was? Well I’ll tell you. There are a few times in the movie where we see these cow skulls throughout the abandoned slaughterhouse. It’s easy to assume that this is just because it’s, well, a slaughterhouse, so there are bones everywhere. There was also a somewhat religious tone to why these women were being killed, with the torture guy somehow relating pain to sacrifice to transcending something blah blah blah, you get the idea. However, you start to realize that he is worshipping these skulls, as opposed to just some ambiguous religion. There’s a scene where Martin dreams of seeing a figure in the middle of a field who is wearing a cow skull on his head, almost appearing to be some kind of demon thing, or a guy dressed up to resemble a demon thing. There’s another scene where the old torture guy is having an argument with young Martin and we see the shadow of a figure approaching the pair, the old torture guy acknowledge’s the figures existence, and then it leaves. Unfortunately, this supernatural element is never explored more than those two mentions. Granted, I could be missing out on where that concept was going by not seeing the movie that chronologically takes place after this one, but I hear that movie sucks anyway. Also, having only two scenes of it is kind of annoying, and it really should have been three. Three is so much better than two! Had there been three, or possibly more, references to what the fuck that was, this movie would get a better rating.

Wolfman Moon Scale