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GEHENNA: WHERE DEATH LIVES
Director: Hiroshi Katagiri Cast: Eva Swan, Simon Phillips, Justin Gordon, Matthew Edward Hegstrom, Sean Sprawling, Doug Jones, Masashi Odate, Lance Henriksen MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:45 Release Date: 5/4/18 (limited) |
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Capsule review by Mark Dujsik | May 3, 2018 I often have noted that one of the key elements of the success of a horror movie is its location. In theory, Gehenna: Where Death Lives provides a pretty effective locale for its series of eerie sights, its routine jump-scares, and its time-bending premise. The place is a World War II-era bunker on the island of Saipan that a quintet of people stumble upon while exploring the potential site of an exclusive vacation resort. It has been abandoned for about 70 years, has no power, and, with its dark descent and narrow hallways, has the potential to be a claustrophobe's worst nightmare. A good location alone, though, does not a good horror movie make. Once the characters arrive at the bunker, that fact quickly becomes apparent in co-writer/director Hiroshi Katagiri's first feature. The group includes Paulina (Eva Swan), Alan (Simon Phillips), and Tyler (Justin Gordon), all of whom are directly involved in the hotel project. Along for the ride are videographer Dave (Matthew Edward Hegstrom) and a local driver named Pepe (Sean Sprawling). After a lengthy introduction, the five eventually go into the abandoned bunker. The door locks behind them. After a brief and violent encounter with a scary old man, the group passes out and awakens to discover the bunker in its wartime prime. A bunch of voices and apparitions begin appearing, and nobody seems particularly curious about where or, better, when they are. These aren't really characters, despite Katagiri and his fellow screenwriters' (Nathan Long and Brad Palmer) attempts to give a couple of them past sins that take spectral form within the bunker. The characters exist to be scared by these ghosts, and the ghosts exist to show off some effective makeup work, such as when one of the group's members becomes practically immortal and has his face bashed to pieces with a shovel. The location is fine, but it turns out to be antithetical to the movie's major twist, which is, in practice, the only reason any of these characters and ghosts, as well as the story itself, exist. Gehenna: Where Death Lives assumes we'll be as incurious as its characters, but with some basic math, we can figure out exactly what's happening here almost as soon as the characters enter the bunker. Without characters to care about or scares to be frightened by, we're just left waiting for the inevitable, predictable reveal. Copyright © 2018 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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