Purgatorium

PURGATORIUM Trailer from Travis Miller on Vimeo. Director - Travis Miller (Dead Girls Don't Cry)
Starring - Jeremy Castaldo (The Killer Inside Me), Libby Chancellor (The Cook), and Tatum Chancellor
Release Date - 2013
Genre - Thriller
Tagline(s) - "A fate worse than death" and "Abandon all hope"
Format - Streaming (Online Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     I often wonder why people can bitch and complain about bad movies all the time and never take the time to praise those that are worth a damn.  I actually find it amazing how people can dedicate so much of their time to bash a particular film or series instead of just ignoring it and spend that time spreading the word of a film that actually deserves it.  That brings me to Purgatorium.  This is a film I had no clue that it even existed.  You can argue that is because the film did not have a big enough budget to hire a marketing team to advertise and blah blah blah but we all know that is straight up bullshit.  Now-a-days Facebook, youtube, and vimeo makes it so much easier for indie films to get the word out.  Sadly, people would rather share shit about stuff they hate like movies, politics, religion, and gay marriage.

      The film centers around a group of twenty-somethings that wake up in a house.  The group has no recollection of who they are or how they ended up there.  The group scrambles to recover their identities while fighting with each other and the dark entities hidden within the house.  The more they look the more they remember what happened that lead to them being locked in the house.  One by one they all fall victim to time and those same dark entities that haunts the hallways. 
     Normally I am not a fan of thrillers and I usually despise psychological thrillers but this one definitely made it fun.  I went in to the film knowing it was a thriller but I kept an open mind and it more than entertained me.  The main praise points of this film is the camera work and the moody atmosphere.  The film looks beautiful and has some genuinely creepy moments.  However, the movie comes off as very cliched but I think that was intentional.  For the most part it made me laugh but as the movie progressed it became old very quick.  The same could be said for the dialogue.  When the characters would carry on a conversation they would literally say what should have been implied.  This actually took away from the feel of the film tremendously.   Like I said earlier, I don't know if this was intentional to get a few laughs but it became a little annoying as time went on.  The acting is extremely hard to judge because of the dialogue.  The film could have went two directions that would have made the movie a lot better.  If the film wanted to be funny then it should have went that route and added more humor.  Also, the film could have went the darker route and been something completely horrific. Instead, the film just rode the line of awkwardness.  The story is honestly nothing original and I called it from early on.  The film may be predictable but there is plenty of atmosphere and tension, as well as, many scares.  Finally, we do get some on screen kills but they are nothing graphic.  The film relies heavily on atmosphere and suspense to get the point across instead of gore.  Blood junkies will not be satisfied with this one.  Overall, this is a moody thriller that will make your skin crawl.  I highly recommend it.