Godforsaken

Director - Olivia Jones 

Starring - Kane Richard Blust (Vampie, Torchwood), Jeff Bratz (Weedjies: Halloweed Night, My Crazy Ex), and Diana Castrillon (Fallen Souls, The Beast)

Release Date - 2019

Genre - Horror

Tagline - "Only her faith can save us"

Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     My recent Wild Eye Releasing marathon was off to a good start when I tossed in the thriller Vicious.  This is a movie I would highly recommend to any movie fan.  It was not what I was expecting but god damn was it fun.  I followed that up with the 2019 slasher The Death Pledge.  I was very curious about this one but it was evident that the movie was poorly put together and held together with duct tape.  I followed that one up with another 2019 film, Godforsaken.  I have a soft spot for religious horror and couldn't wait to check it out. I want to thank MVD and Wild Eye for sending this one over.  

     The film follows Dina who is having a spiritual crisis.  She speaks with a priest and nun about her struggles but doesn't find comfort in them.  However, if she doesn't come to terms with her faith soon the human race will fall victim to the demons that roam the world for 24 hours on Halloween.

     I was looking forward to this one because I thought it was an honest to god religious based horror flick but after just a few moments into it I quickly realized it was not.  The film feels like one of those fringe Christian companies had made a movie to sell throughout the church circut about a girl who questions her faith only to have demons further push her into it. I can see why it was marketed and released as a horror film but It was almost as difficult to finish as The Death Pledge.  The acting in this one is very slow, dry, and flat.  The cast has no energy and the characters all lack defining personalities.  I understand that a good portion of the cast has little to no experience but the characters make the scenes very difficult to watch along with making the story extremely awkward and clunky.  The story for this one has no excuse being as long as it is.  The random scenes with people from around the world suffering with the demons/Satan does more to hurt the film that it does to help it.  These scenes are one and done with no character development.  They mess the flow of the film up and only create more questions than answers.  With that being said, the story itself could be told in 30 minutes or less.  If it was more direct with the story and main characters then it could have passed as a watchable film.  Finally, the film has several deaths that are very bland and forgettable.  The film, as I stated earlier, feels like a Christian film meant to warn followers how questioning your faith can weaken you so these deaths are not for the genre fans.  Some blood but that's about it.  However, we have a lot of visual effects that are laughably bad.  Overall, Godforsaken is bad and I mean bad.  I highly recommend skipping it unless you run a podcast focusing on bad movies.