The Seasoning House {2012}

[Wonderlust]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1555093/

Director: Paul Hyett










The Seasoning House is a stylish, claustrophobic, nightmarish neo-horror about Angel, a young Balkan girl forced to work in a rape house during an unspecified war. After killing a militiaman, she goes on the run.

In the directorial debut of special effects guru Paul Hyatt, young actress Rosie Day plays Angel, a deaf and mute girl who sees her family brutally murdered before she is dragged to the eponymous Seasoning House, where kidnapped girls are forced to into prostitution for soldiers of a bleak and senseless Balkan war. The first half of the film has a very dream-like quality to it, as Angel, who is enslaved to care for the prostituted girls, performs her daily routine of doping the victims, and then cleaning them up after they have suffered the soldiers often disturbingly brutal attentions. Hyatt has said he was heavily influenced by Pan's Labyrinth, and it certainly shows in this half as Angel silently wanders the seasoning house and we glimpse the world as she senses, or more accurately, doesn't sense it. But when ruthless soldier Goran, played by Sean Pertwee, and his men arrive on the scene, the same soldiers responsible for murdering Angel's family, she takes drastic action and the film swerves from darkly depressing, to a taut, tense and brutal game of cat and mouse. Rosie Day does well in the lead role, her character, subdued and distant in the beginning, shows signs of life as she recalls memories of her family, slowly bonds with one of the prostitutes who fortuitously knows sign language, and eventually comes to her aid as she suffers horrifically at the hands of one of Goran's men, the monstrous Ivan, while Goran himself is a fittingly cruel and tenacious main villain. The savage scenes of rape in the first half are offset by the brutal acts of revenge and survival in the second, each accompanied, as you would expect, by some great visual effects, but while the film is engaging throughout and comes to a satisfying conclusion, it felt slightly disjointed and meandered in places. However, that doesn't ever detract from the overall tone of the film, darkly foreboding and laced with a palpable sense of menace, it's a tense and disturbing ride.

I really want to see this.






http://www.facebook.com/TheSeasoningHouse

http://www.theseasoninghouse.com/home.html


Ronny's review:
http://www.filmbizarro.com/view_revi...oninghouse.php


Source:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1555093/reviews

[Santa]

I will see this this Saturday - will report back.

[horrorking95]

I'm very excited for this. It looks exactly up my street (not literally). I love a good British horror!! Eden Lake and Kill List being my favourites!

[Midnight-Kroovy]

I wanted to see this at Fright Fest but couldn't make it. Looks like a really cool and gritty revenge flick.

[Santa]

Saw it today, here we go:
Though the theme was pretty disturbing and basically good stuff for the screen, but the implementation...not so much. The build-up wasn't that bad, using many slo-mos and bleached out imagery, but the movie doesn't really lift off, nor does the sympathy for the girl, thanks to a shallow script and second-class acting. Violence-level was decent, though sometimes not very believable. An 80 pound girl can't take out a 200 pound war monster.
I thought that Eden was the better version of the same theme.

5/10

[Midnight-Kroovy]

Originally Posted by Santa Sangre

Saw it today, here we go:
Though the theme was pretty disturbing and basically good stuff for the screen, but the implementation...not so much. The build-up wasn't that bad, using many slo-mos and bleached out imagery, but the movie doesn't really lift off, nor does the sympathy for the girl, thanks to a shallow script and second-class acting. Violence-level was decent, though sometimes not very believable. An 80 pound girl can't take out a 200 pound war monster.
I thought that Eden was the better version of the same theme.

5/10

Damn, disappointing to hear that as it looked so promising. How did you manage to see it?

[Santa]

Originally Posted by Midnight-Kroovy

Damn, disappointing to hear that as it looked so promising. How did you manage to see it?

As part of a small filmfest. They wanted to show the new Evil Dead as well, but Sony Pictures said no. Those fuckers.

[Wonderlust]

5/10 aye?

I'll have to see this for myself.

[Santa]

Originally Posted by Wonderlust

5/10 aye?

I'll have to see this for myself.

Like I said, spare your time and watch Eden instead, if you didn't already. "Seasoning House" exploitive character tends to be near zero. And I guess you have been hoping for this.

[Renacimiento]

I haven't seen this movie yet, but Eden is a very good drama, most of all for its personal approach to a topic such as trafficking in women, which achieves that as a viewer, you can feel connected to the main character.