THE SHRINE

Directed by: Jon Knautz
Released: 2010

a journalist, her boyfriend and their journalist friend travel to poland to investigate a missing persons story. they end up in this creepy little town inhabited by a religious cult (seemed kinda satanic to me) that's into human sacrifice. there's a massive, dense cloud of fog over the horizon at all times. it never moves, and no one ever goes in it, except for our three main characters. the two girls come across a demonic looking statue in the fog, which starts crying blood and moving after they see it. they and the guy end up getting kidnapped by the cult and shit goes downhill from there. the first act was kinda shitty, but it picked up in the second and third.. it felt like all the best parts of "the exorcist" without all the boring shit. overall, the film had a pretty creepy feel to it; any gamers who've played "resident evil 4" will see the comparison-- natives speaking their own language, being stuck in the woods, the whole cult thing, weird zombie-ish creatures, etc. my only real complaint was the lack of subtitles. yeah, the film was in english, but i'd say about half of the dialogue was either polish or demonic gibberish, neither of which had subtitles. the gibberish i can understand not subtitling, but when a demon chick says something to someone (in gibberish) and they actually reply, you kinda feel like you missed something. either way, it's worth a watch. 6.5/10.