The Conduit

Director - Sixto Melendez (Roaches)
Starring - Wes Martinez (Battleship), Monica Engesser (Krampus: The Reckoning), and Chris Cox
Release Date - 2016
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "Evil loves company"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

    Midnight Releasing/Brain Damage Films and myself have a love-hate relationship.  I'm a horror collector so I love getting new horror, sci-fi, and exploitation flicks before they hit store shelves.  They will sometime send over some really great films that get an average of 4 out of 5 from me.  Sadly, a good majority of those films get an average of 1 or 2 out of 5.  These films sometimes comes in pairs and throws the viewer off.  I recently reviewed Where the Devil Dwells and fucking loved it.  It was a fantastic Satanic film that delivers an amazing story.  That film was sent with The Conduit, a supernatural horror film from director Sixto Melendez.  I knew nothing of the film except it was being heavily promoted by the two sites.  Once again, thanks for sending this one my way to check out.

     The film follows Eddie (Martinez) who is having a hard time coping with his divorce.  He loved his wife but she soon grew tired of him and moved on.  He lets it get the best of him and tries to end it all.  His friend finds him and is able to save him but he is forced to attend meetings to talk with other people like him.  It is here that he meets a young girl dealing with her own private demons and the two spark up conversation.  Soon they are screwing around but Eddie meets a stranger who warns him not to let her kick the drugs.  Eddie ignores the old man and soon discovers that the young girl was once screwing a priest and when they were almost caught he convinces her parents to have an exorcism to rid her of demons which turns her into something far worse.
     Supernatural horror films can go one of two ways.  They can either be story rich and deliver on some great atmosphere and tension or it can be shit, skip the story, offer up cheap images, and then try to hit the viewer with some jump scares.  The second is all too common among indie horror and The Conduit fell into the trap.  The acting in this one is actually great.  The film's lead, Wes Martinez, does a brilliant job in his role.  Sadly, his character is not that very interesting and the viewer feels no symphony for him.  The remainder of the cast does a great job as well and deserve the recognition that they deserve but no one really stands out because of how all the characters are written.  The story for this one has a lot of potential, and I mean a lot, but the film is unable to follow up and capitalize on it.  The film offers us so many shitty characters that we don't care about along with one of the most cliched stories I have ever seen.  I did dig the exorcist portion of the film but that was about as far as it goes.  So much could have been done with this angle but never comes to fruition.  The story is predictable and unable to hold the viewer's attention.  Finally, those of you looking for bloodshed and gore will be very disappointed.  Usually a horror flick will offer up some great atmosphere and suspense or gore.  This film has neither.  Overall, The Conduit is not the horror film I was wanting to see.  I was hoping it would have a great story and deliver on the atmosphere but it lacks both.  I would recommend checking out Where the Devil Dwells over this one.