Scourge |
  • USA / Canada • 2008 • 92m •   • Directed by: Jonas Quastel. • Starring: Russell Ferrier, Robyn Ledoux, Nic Rhind, Jason Harder, Marina Pasqua, Alan Legros, Hugh Anderson, Mensah Iruoje, Paul Vigano, Russ Ball, Erin Borgfjord, Frankie Nash, Brandon Soros. • Music by: Peter Allen.     An ancient pestilence called The Scourge has been set free in a small town after being entombed in a church's masonry for a century and a half. As bodies rapidly pile up, nothing stands between the spawning Scourge and the rest of the town except our young heroes Scott and Jessie who rediscover their love for each other in the process.
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Review:
This American Canadian co-production was written, co-produced & directed by Jonas Quastel & while I wouldn't say Scourge is any sort of masterpiece I didn't think it was all bad & certainly better than I was expecting although saying that I had zero expectations so that isn't saying that much. I had a choice last night, I could have either watched this Scourge or the South Korean monster flick The Host (2006) & after I saw Scourge went on for 90 minutes & The Host went on for 120 my mind was made up & I have to say I don't regret my decision since this was alright. The pace is good although not that much happens (the majority of the film features nothing more complex than the Scourge creature moving from body to another for no real apparent reason), the character's are better than one might expect & the body hopping creature plot is quite effective although it's not a patch on the likes of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) or The Thiing (1982) which feel very similar to Scourge in the way they play out. There's not to many why's or explanation's given & a lot of the plot is fairly basic & undeveloped or simply glossed over, if this Scourge needs to feed so regularly how did it survive trapped under a church for 150 years? Why don't those who it burrows into know that the Scourge is in them after they have just seen it enter them? Why didn't the geezers in the opening scene set in 1871 kill the Scourge? So while Scourge might have been more satisfying had the makers fleshed a few of the ideas out & developed a little more of a coherent back-story I can't really say it's a bad film but at the same time I am not sure if I can describe it as a particularly good one, it's certainly better than I had expected but that's no recommendation in itself & I can't say it's any better than average so I won't.
The film has a fairly nice slick look about it & there's a nice shot right at the start where the camera pans down the side of a church at night in the pouring rain right to the bottom, to be fair it looks better than most straight-to-DVD releases, particularly in the horror genre at least. The gore levels are low which doesn't help it, a guy is punched in the face & his jaw half rips off, there's some peeling skin & a bit of blood splatter but little else. There's no nudity unless you count the beefy black firefighter dude who takes a shower. The CGI computer effects are quite good actually, the actual effects on the Scourge creature are impressive & the thing looks good with it's mouth full of sharp teeth & lots of tentacles flapping around. The exploding cop car looks terrible though.
Although set entirely in Washington state Scourge was filmed in Nanaimo in British Columbia in Canada on a budget of about $1,500,000. The acting is decent enough from a cast none of whom I recognise from anything else at all.
Scourge isn't the best body possessing styled horror film ever but it isn't the worst either, I didn't dislike it but at the same time I didn't exactly love it. Watchable if there's nothing else on telly & you can bag a copy going cheap or better still rent it. Could have been worse for sure but then again it could have been better
Review by Paul Andrews from the Internet Movie Database.
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