The Crucifixion is a 2017 American horror film directed by Xavier Gens, written by Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes and starring Sophie Cookson, Brittany Ashworth and Corneliu Ulici. It is based on the Tanacu exorcism that took place in Vaslui County, Romania, in 2005.

It’s another skeptic turned believer in Christian mumbo jumbo in the end kinda horror movie. In Bucharest, 2004 Father Dumitru and several nuns perform a violent exorcism on Sister Adelina Marinescu, who is believed to be possessed by the demon Agares. Dumitru and four nuns are arrested for murder when the three-day ordeal culminates in the death of Adelina. New York journalist Nicole Rawlins convinces her editor to let her investigate the case. He cautions Nicole to not allow her personal views on faith or the death of her mother to affect her objectivity.

She meets the priest and interviews him as well as one of the nuns, Vaduva who was best friends with Adelina and  local priest Father Anton who helps her with her investigations. Anton directs Nicole to speak directly to Bishop Gornick at St. Joseph’s Cathedral. Bishop Gornick tells Nicole that Adelina was mentally ill, not possessed, then goes on to infer that Father Dumitru was a rogue priest who overzealously performed an inordinate amount of exorcisms. She then has a strange encounter with mute gypsy boy Tavian Amanar outside. Anton theorizes that the demon allowed Adelina to die because it no longer needed her and could transfer its evil into someone else for another possession.

Nicole starts getting spooky visions of beings and gets scared when she finds dead insects from nowhere in her wine. Anton theorizes that the demon allowed Adelina to die because it no longer needed her and could transfer its evil into someone else for another possession. She even gets dreams of having sex with Anton. Another visit with Vaduva reveals that Adelina fell in love with a man who led her away from the church, but the relationship ended unexpectedly. Adelina’s plea for God’s forgiveness seemingly invited The Devil instead. Vaduva describes what Adelina’s exorcism was like. Nicole interviews Dr. Funar, who diagnosed Adelina as a schizophrenic. Dr. Funar recalls a demonic vision Adelina had during her diagnosis.

Nicole ends up getting possessed by the demon Angares and starts violently levitating. Anton performs an exorcism, pleading for Nicole to renew her faith. Nicole has a vision of her mother as the demon is ultimately expelled from her body. Nicole returns to New York. Father Dumitru and the nuns serve seven years in prison for Sister Adelina’s murder.

Hardly effective or compelling, despite a few scares but the movie failed to entertain me or scare me. I might still be compelled to watch horror movies with demon possessions but fewer and fewer are actually good. 6 outta 10!

The Cured is a 2017 horror drama film written and directed by David Freyne. It stars Ellen Page, Sam Keeley, Paula Malcomson and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor. Set in Ireland it shows the aftermath of a plague caused by a virus that leaves the infected in a zombie like stage, making them aggressive and cannibalistic.  The Maze Virus, had swept through Europe until a cure was found and 75% of the infected were able to be treated and they can become normal humans again. However, they remember what they did during their time as a zombie and it affects them even after they are cured. The remaining 25% of the infected stay in the same stage and are resistant to the cure.

5 years after the outbreak Senan, who is cured is sent out into the regular world and his widowed sister-in-law Abbie agrees to take him. She also has her young son Cillian who though initially does not take to Senan, later bonds with him while playing games. Senan doesn’t tell Abbie that her husband, his brother, was killed by him just after he got infected. Also released the same day as Senan is Connor, who was a promising politician, a friend of Senan who was the one who infected him. Connor is rejected by his father as he had killed his own mother while in the zombie stage.

Senan takes a job at the hospital where the Resistant are housed, and observes that the Resistant show no interest in attacking the Cured. This is a source of political tension in the community, as the never-infected suspect aloud that the Cured would love to see another outbreak of the Maze Virus, as they would be largely immune to its effects. Senan reluctantly joins Conor’s group of Cured people as they are shunned by society and are subjected to hatred. When a mission goes wrong and a military man is killed Sergeant Cantor, who is their rehabilitation officer, suspects Conor and Senan and he informs Abbie about them. Conor tells Abbie that he infected Senan and the later killed his brother,

Confronting Senan who admits this, Abbie throws him out.  It is announced in various news broadcasts that the government is planning to euthanize the 25% (5000 patients) who are Resistant, despite the assertions of a prominent virologist that a better vaccine for the Resistant is nearly developed. Senan assists Cantor in a sting operation to arrest Conor after he confesses aloud to the arson; however, Conor violently murders Cantor and flees after showing a rare emotional outburst, blaming Senan for betraying him. Conor and the Cured Alliance set in motion a drastic plan to free the Resistant from their cellblock and the infected start attacking the people in the streets and their homes.

Senan finds Abbie, who is frantically trying to retrieve Cillian from his school. Senan rescues Cillian but is confronted by Conor, who beats him savagely. A soldier shoots Conor but he escapes and his fate is unknown. Senan, Abbie and Cillian return to their apartment, but Cillian is bit by an infected and begins showing immediate signs of infection. Senan, knowing he is immune, takes Cillian, and tells Abbie he will keep him safe until another vaccine is available. Some semblance of order returns an unspecified time later as Abbie watches the news waiting for some news of her son.

Dull, boring and leaves you not rooting for anything or anyone in particular. I wanted to watch the movie for seeing Ellen Page. It’s an unmemorable film in a field of zombie flicks, numerous of which are vastly superior. 6 outta 10!

The Skeleton Key is a 2005 American supernatural horror film directed by Iain Softley, written by Ehren Kruger and starring Kate Hudson, Gena Rowlands, John Hurt, Peter Sarsgaard and Joy Bryant. The film centers on a young hospice nurse who acquires a job at a Terrebonne Parish plantation home, and becomes entangled in a supernatural mystery involving the house, its former inhabitants and the hoodoo rituals and spells that took place there. It was released in the United States on August 12, 2005. This movie was a recommendation from a website that highlighted underrated horror flicks throughout the ages.

Caroline, a hospice worker, takes a job as the caretaker of an isolated plantation house in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. The elderly lady of the house, Violet Devereaux, needs help looking after her husband Benjamin, who was mostly paralyzed by an apparent stroke. At the insistence of the family’s estate lawyer, Luke Marshall, Caroline accepts the position. Things are not as it seems, though. She learns that the original owners lynched their hoodoo practising servants, Papa Justify & Mam Celine, when they were found in the attic including the owners kids in a ritual. The kids who lived there till they were old supposedly sold the house to Ben & Violent in 1962.

Using a skeleton key that Violet gave her, Caroline explorers the attic in between taking care of Ben, who even crawls out of the window and falls onto the ground. Caroline finds help me scrawled onto his sheet which then goes missing. Caroline borrows a phonograph record called the “Conjure of Sacrifice” from the attic, which is a recording of Papa Justify reciting a Hoodoo ritual. Caroline surmises that Ben’s stroke was induced by Hoodoo, but believes that his paralytic state is a nocebo effect induced by his own belief, rather than something supernatural. Taking advice from her friend Jill, Caroline accesses a hidden Hoodoo shop in a nearby laundromat, where a Hoodoo woman gives her tools and instructions to cure Ben. After conducting the ritual, Ben regains some ability to speak and move, and he begs Caroline to get him away from Violet.

Caroline tells Luke about her suspicions towards Violet, but he remains skeptical. A blind proprietor at a gas station tells them about the Conjure of Sacrifice, which she learns is a Hoodoo spell wherein the caster steals the remaining years of life from the victim. Increasingly convinced of Hoodoo’s authenticity, Caroline fears that Violet will soon cast the spell on Ben. Caroline discovers that Violet is unable to pass a line of brick dust laid across one of the house’s doorways, confirming her suspicions. She drugs Violet and tries to drive off with Ben but the gates are chained and locked. Hiding Ben, Caroline goes to meet Luke but finds out too late that he is Violet’s accomplice and he brings her to the house.

Caroline flees to the attic (pushing Violet down the stairs and breaking her legs in the process), calls 9-1-1 and Jill for help, and casts what she believes is a protective spell. Violet, having caught up with her, reveals she actually trapped herself inside a protective circle. Violet pushes a full-length mirror at Caroline, which reflects one of the original owner’s children, then Violet, and lastly Cecile. A recording of the Conjure of Sacrifice plays, and the two switch bodies. Violet (revealed to be Mama Cecile, who had been occupying Violet’s body through the Conjure) wakes up in Caroline’s body, and force-feeds Caroline (now in Violet’s body) a potion that induces a stroke-like paralytic state.

Luke (revealed to be Papa Justify) arrives upstairs, and it is revealed that Mama Cecile and Papa Justify have been conducting the Conjure of Sacrifice on new people since their supposed lynching. At the end of the movie Papa Justify and Mama Cecile in Luke’s & Caroline’s body remain in the house as an ambulance takes away the paralyzed dying bodies of Violet and Ben.

Good film, though it drags a bit and I am fascinated by the plot and the hoodoo practice. A bit more excitement would have made the film better. 7.5 outta 10!