So, yep…another horror film, so another recent trip to the cinema.
I was kind of intrigued by the trailer of this movie, although I didn’t have high expectations of the movie going into it. I will say that the movie met my expectations, in that it was very similar to a lot of other horror movies I’ve soon…in particular in the way it lacked subtlety and ignored ‘less is more’.
I will say that the initial scene of the movie was quite good in how harrowing it was. The group of nuns with the red face coverings were particularly creepy…and I would have liked it if the movie had focused a bit more on them. By the end of the movie, I still didn’t understand what their purpose was…or where they were at the end, given Cecilia was fighting back.
I was a bit confused by the setting of this movie. When Cecilia is in the airport security office, there’s a very old-timey feel to her surroundings. However, the priest answers a call on his cell phone in the car later, so…I assume the movie is supposed to be set in modern times.
I will say that there were a couple of nice elements of foreshadowing in this movie, so that was something it did well at times. I was a bit disappointed in Cecilia’s actions, though. It felt like all she was doing was reacting to what was going on and not doing much about the situation she was in until much later in the film. For instance (spoiler alert), she watches a friend get mutilated and does absolutely nothing to try and stop it. I actually stopped caring so much about her as a character at that point.
It was also really hard to suspend my disbelief at times. I don’t mean about Cecilia getting pregnant without a man being involved. What I mean is her being able to run, really fast, with a huge pregnancy belly. I know adrenaline can do all sorts of things…but the fear that apparently fuelled her didn’t really come across that well. And considering that she started off the film as someone who had faith and felt a calling to be a nun…her actions after getting pregnant really didn’t feel like they fit with what had previously been established of her character.
I’m going to mention specific spoilers for the ending here, as I feel like the movie could have done things a lot better here. The appearance of the baby isn’t shown at all, but its breathing sounds like something inhuman. And I think that was a bad decision on the filmmakers’ part, because…well, it was clear that there was something wrong with the child. That whole scene could have been done so much better, just by having a normal baby’s cries and Cecilia’s horrified expression being the subtle clue that something was horribly wrong. But unfortunately, there just wasn’t that kind of subtlety in this movie.
Personally, I wasn’t very impressed with this movie. I think it could have been a lot better, and I couldn’t really connect with the main character after some of the choices she made. I won’t be watching this movie again, I have to say.
Ink of Blood 