Behind the Cross

Director - Tomi Kerminen (Hellsinki)
Starring - Tomi Kerminen, Petri Niemi, and Marica Vaisto
Release Date - 2012
Genre - Horror
Tagline(s) - "When good turns evil and angels turn into demons." and "Are you ready for the nightmare of your life!"
Format - Streaming (Online Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

      Writing for Horror Society has brought a lot of perks my way.  I have been able to get special privileges at horror conventions and even scored me a trip sometime in the future to be part of a paranormal investigation.  However, the biggest perk of the job is getting movies to watch and review.  I find it hard to fathom that some people actually give a damn about what I think in regards to certain movies. Directors are often reaching out to me asking me to review their films.  Sure, I do ask a lot of directors if I can review their films but it is so much rewarding when a filmmaker takes the time to ask me to review their film.  Recently I received an email from Finnish director Tomi Kerminen asking me to review his film Behind the Cross.  The title and poster for the film were badass so I watched it the first chance I had.
     The film follows a priest, Father Michael (Kerminen), who loves to torture women, masturbate, and piss on people as they sleep.  Father Michael also likes to kill people and we get 30 plus minutes of just that.


      I have been a horror fan for almost two decades now but my overall scope of horror is limited to mostly North American films and a hand few of flicks from Asia.  That being said, I had no idea what to expect from this Finnish religious flick.  I mentally prepared myself for anything and I assumed it would be a film that would shock me at every turn.  I was wrong.  This film was really not that shocking.  In fact, it was not really that brutal either.  It could have been a 30 minute long back metal music video if it was just edited a little more.  The acting is not that great but it is so hard to judge due to the story.  The story is hard as hell to follow.  I don't think there was actually any real story to follow to be honest.  The film was just a compilation of torture, sexual, and deaths scenes with only one thing tying them all together and that is Father Michael.  Finally the film does have some kills but they are nothing to marvel over.  I was expecting this to be one brutal flick but it actuality was not.  I have seen my fair share of films that had torture scenes in them and this one was no where close to being as violent as those.  People bound and gagged are good to set the mood but that is not really that menacing.  We do get a few good kills and two of which (they may be more but I don't recall them) that really stood out and one cut away right when it was getting good.  More deaths and more blood would have helped this unorganized flick.  Overall, this is a film with a bold but disorganized story that could have resulted is a decent flick but failed to pull it off.  I do not recommend this one.