The Eternal (1998) User Reviews

Trance: Weird but not wonderful

[Platypuschow · 3/10 · 7 July 2018]

The weirdest thing about this odd little movie is that its labelled a remake of The Mummy (1932) (And subsequent remakes).

But instead of a mummy we have a witch.

And instead of Egypt it's Ireland.

And instead of being good, its terrible.

Starring Christopher Walken and Jared Harris, even a decent cast couldn't turn this one around.

The plot is thoroughly confuddled, the script is dire and the only thing that the movie has going for it is the finale but even that is recycled.

The Eternal (Otherwise known as Trance) is a hard one to pigeon hole. It's not exactly a traditional horror, more a supernatural thriller maybe?

One thing is for sure, the movie isn't as smart as the creators clearly thought it was and falls under the category of instantly forgettable.

The Good:

Walken and Harris do fine

The Bad:

Messy score/soundtrack

Walken is wasted

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Getting knocked out twice within the space of a few minutes has to have a lasting impact right?

Double whammy: bad AND boring

[Clay-23 · 3/10 · 21 August 2003]

Upon concluding my viewing of "Trance," or "The Eternal," or whatever the producers are calling this film, I wondered to myself, "Out of all of the bad movies I could have seen, couldn't I have at least seen one that was entertaining?" Even if a film is not well made in terms of acting, directing, writing, or what have you, it can at least be fun, and therefore worthwhile. But not only is this film bad in artistic value, it's incredibly boring. For a plot of such thinness, it moves awfully slowly, with little dramatic tension. At the very least, in a low-brow attempt at entertainment, the deaths of the characters could have been cool and/or gory, but the creators of this dreck failed in that department as well.

What does this movie have going for it? Pretty much nothing, unless you get entertainment out of watching Christopher Walken, who is capable of being brilliant, put so little effort into his acting that he falls into self-parody mode (WHY did he decide to do this film anyway?).

I give this film 3/10, because, God help us, there actually have been worse movies made before.

"You're going to "Ireland" to dry out?"

[lost-in-limbo · 5/10 · 2 January 2010]

Beautiful looking and sedately handled, but immensely muddled independent art house horror feature by writer / director Michael Almereyda. Kind of similar in style to his film "Najda" four years earlier, which I don't think so highly of (other than the excellent soundtrack that accompanied it).

Nora and Jim (who are alcoholics) along with their son leave America and head to Ireland to visit Nora's grandmother. Despite the advice of their doctor not to go, as Nora one night with Jim got on the drink and she ended up falling down some stairs leaving her with a minor concussion. When getting there, she meets her uncle where he takes her down the basement to show her a decomposed body which he believes to a centuries old druid witch. Could this be the connections to the headaches and visions plaguing Nora's mind, as she'll find out when the witch is revived.

"Trance" is a touch better, but still engulfed by similar problems and nonetheless keeps the same positives. Again this atypically brooding fable is not for everyone, but it managed to hold my attention and I found the direction less concerned with its distracting artsy mechanics (than say in "Nadja")… although they're still evident. There are some delirious images, consisting of jaded visions rocking the main protagonist's mind. These stylised passages hold a certain arresting, if haunting charge. However this is when it's not in its nauseating head spin of mangled ideas. While the plot has a slight structure and little narrative drive, it's stretched out by its unfocused fabricated episodic developments with its dry, upfront and moody trimmings. Every one of these characters / including the witch / monster of the piece are damaged, but still humane vessels in the search of something to make them complete. Secrets are buried, to only be awoken.

It's messy and meanders, but strangely alluring like caught in a drunken, abstract state. I put it down to the performances. A breathtaking Alison Elliot (in dual roles) and narky Jared Harris acquit themselves to their lead roles. Lois Smith holds strong. Christopher Walken looking rather weary goes about things in a sober, but underlining twisted manner. Also Jason Millar's inclusion is merely a throwaway cameo with an amusing line. Almereyda's slickly calculative direction is switched on, making good use of the lush backdrop consisting of a stunning beach line and the Gothic interiors of mansion that the enclosed action mostly takes place in. Intimate photography is sharply engineered and well-intended. The brilliant soundtrack is notable with it tunes (that are perfect choices), and the music score is clinically alienating but whimsical in flight.

A clever cross between mummy movie and witchcraft thriller that didn't get the theatrical release and critical attention it deserved.

[BaronWolfgangVonSchreck · 29 December 1999]

You might say that 1998 was the Year of the Mummy. Decades went by like desert sands in an hourglass without seeing so much as a single atrophied undead Egyptian dragging his moldy bones and rotting cerements out of the tomb and across the silver screen. Then, all of a sudden, there were not one but three mummy projects in the works. The most high profile and successful was Universal's bone-headed, big budget re-make of "The Mummy". The competition, Russell Mulcahey's "Talos the Mummy", was retitled "Tale of the Mummy" and downgraded to a DTV (Direct-To-Video) release. Likewise, Michael Almereyda's "Trance" - the tale not of an Egyptian mummy, but an Irish one - was re-titled "The Eternal: Kiss of the Mummy" and by-passed movie theatres in favor of a video release. And that's a shame, because Almereyda (who made his mark with the arty "Dracula's Daughter" remake "Nadja") crafted an eerie little Gothic fairytale that is far more interesting and inspired than its boring and bloated competition.

The plot concerns Nora (Elliott), a young American woman of Irish origin who, well, lives up the stereotype of her people and is a bit of a lush. She and her equally inebriated husband Jeff (Harris, who played Dracula's son in "Nadja") are coming home from their latest drunken binge one night when Nora takes a tumble down the stairs of their New York apartment building. Nora survives the fall, but is soon visited by headaches, nosebleeds and hallucinations for her trouble.

Determined to dry out for the sake of their young son, the couple head to Ireland (not *exactly* the best place to give up the sauce) where they pay a visit her grandmother and Uncle Bill (a typically gaunt and creepy Chris Walken) in their huge, labrynthinian mansion. Uncle Bill harbors a dark and fascinating secret in the basement: the perfectly preserved, mummified remains of a Druid witch; one of those fascinating "bog-men" you might have read about in National Geographic or seen on the Discovery Channel. Only this one is considerably livelier than your average bog-person and, as it happens, turns out to be a distant ancestor of Nora's.

Poor old Uncle Bill quietly explains to her that the druid witch was neither good not evil in her life, but more like a force of nature. But he and we learn different when the mummy gets her groove on and sets out to steal the body, soul and identity of her hapless descendant.

One of the things I like about Almereyda's neo-Gothic-monster movies is the fact he doesn't shy away from the kitschier and pulpier elements inherent to the genre. On the contrary, he rushes to embrace them for his own purposes. During the last reel, our heroes try to burn, break, stake, and even ELECTROCUTE the Druid bitch in an orgy of retro mayhem reminiscent of old 50's Sci-Fi horror epics like "The Thing".

It's a damn shame this clever cross between a mummy movie and a witchcraft thriller didn't get the theatrical release and critical attention it deserved. Like Stuart Gordon's ghastly gem "Castle Freak", this is a DTV release well worth the rental. It has all of the atmospherics and snappy dialog of "Nadja" without any of the annoying and pretentious Pixelvision crap. Here's hoping Alemereyda takes a shot of re-vamping werewolves next! The boy got game.

Nonsensical and Unintelligible

[dr_mabeuse · 2/10 · 3 February 2007]

A good cast and they do their best with what they're given, but the story makes no sense, the characters' actions are inexplicable, and there are too many moments of unintentional humor, as when a man is killed by being pierced with pieces of a phonograph record or when they get the witch drunk to a hip hop beat and then hit her over the head with a bottle and she grabs her hostage and pouts off. The scene when the two witch and her victim (played by the same actress) are in the house together sets up like a 3 Stooges routine, and the plot begs the question: if the witch wants to possess this other woman's soul, why doesn't she just do it instead of leading these people on this elaborate chase? Not to be missed is Christopher Walkin's eyeglasses and his automotive explanation of the afterlife (paraphrased): "The ancient Egyptianas - they wee materialists. They expected the body to last through eternity, like a used car that you souped up. But the Druids, they knew you couldn't drive in the afterlife. You had to get out and walk." Huh? The ending is absolutely indecipherable. Seems like they just ran out of film.

What the hell was that?

[dazzagreen · 1/10 · 20 July 2005]

This film seems to be completely pointless. There is no reason why anything that happens in it happens, as if it was written by a small child who got bored halfway through and thought "how can I wrap this up?". And what were Jared Harris and Christopher Walken thinking? Did they do it for a bet? I couldn't tell you the plot, I'm not entirely sure there is one to be quite frank, but if there is it didn't register. Jared and his bird go to Ireland after she falls down the stairs while lashed up, as you do. They go to a house with a very annoying small girl in it, meet Christopher Walken who has dug up some ancient woman preserved in peat. He brings her back to life for no other reason than it continues the story and she shows her gratitude by immediately icing him. From then on it all gets a bit silly. A couple of hours of my life that I'd like back!

One of Walken's worst films!

[lthseldy1 · 2/10 · 12 August 2004]

This movie is more deceiving than ever, using a suspenseful looking actor like Walken to play in this piece of junk made it look like he had nothing better to do than play a boring role like this one! And the fact that the movie was supposed to be about some witch and you really don't see that until almost the end of the movie but meanwhile you have to sit and watch this boring film while it gets, or tries to get to the meaning of the point and you have to go through this whole trail of boring actors and actresses thinking the whole time of how you passed off another movie and decided on this one and how you have just waisted your money just makes the whole point of time useless sitting there. I'd rather watch cartoons for goodness sakes. Leave this one alone,please!

Just Plain Bad

[ahouston · 3/10 · 24 July 1999]

Saw a trailer for this on another video, and decided to rent when it came out. Boy, was I disappointed! The story is extremely boring, the acting (aside from Christopher Walken) is bad, and I couldn't care less about the characters, aside from really wanting to see Nora's husband get thrashed. Christopher Walken's role is such a throw-away, what a tease!

Stupid, stupid, and more stupid -did I mention stupid ?

[floridamangosteen · 1/10 · 16 April 2020]

This starts out good for about 40 minutes. Then, it just gets ridiculous. The little Irish girl knows so much she could have spilled the beans at the beginning and saved the viewers and the characters much grief.

Haunting, creepy, beautiful, artsy, deep, confusing, modest budget...

[Wuchakk · 6/10 · 19 November 2013]

...these are the words that came to mind after watching 1998's "THE ETERNAL Kiss of the Mummy," originally titled "Trance" and written & directed by Michael Almereyda. The story is about an alcoholic couple who travel to the wife's country manor in Ireland, supposedly to sober up and give their son the opportunity to meet her ailing grandmother. They discover that her weird uncle (Christopher Walken) has a 2000 year-old mummy of a Druid witch in the basement, which he's curiously trying to revive!

This is Gothic horror in the modern day and struck me as a Hammer flick if it were released in more current times. Alison Elliott is fetching in the starring role of the alcoholic wife. You can tell she has a sweet figure, but you'll only catch a glimpse here or there (not that I'd want to see nudity or sleaze; I'm just saying that there's a way to film beautiful women like Alison and this movie doesn't deliver enough on this front, but it does a bit).

"THE ETERNAL" is not your typical modern horror schlock. It doesn't shoot for conventional horror and gore, but it IS pretty creepy in a Gothic sense. I saw "Big Bad Wolf" (2006) before I viewed this one and, although "Big Bad Wolf" is thrilling and ultra-gory, it's not scary, mainly because the filmmakers & cast cop a semi-campy vibe. "THE ETERNAL," by contrast, plays it completely straight and the foggy Irish moors & centuries-old mansion add to the haunting ambiance.

There's also a quality soundtrack with a few stand-out alternative rock numbers, like the one that plays during the end credits, "My Head Becomes the Sky" by Tara Baoth Mooney.

Anyway, there's a Gothic beauty to the movie, which makes it a pleasure just to watch even if the story is "sluggish," as some criticize. It's clear that the writer/director was aiming for art more than common horror thrills. I'd compare it to "The Mothman Prophecies" (2002) in this sense, albeit not as good. It was limited by an obvious modest budget, which shows through here and there with awkward, amateurish filmmaking.

After viewing, I reflected on the seemingly nonsensical story, particularly the perplexing events in the third act, and certain things started to make sense: This is only a story about a Druid witch coming back to life on the surface; and all that might be figurative. It's really about a woman in bondage to alcoholism who comes face-to-face with her lower nature, her self-destructive side (her "id" or "flesh"), not to mention confronting her incestuous uncle, and trying to prevail. Going back to her heritage, her roots, enables her to see WHY she turned to alcohol for succor in the first place.

In essence, this is a Gothic tale about the purging of one's fleshly demons.

The film runs 95 minutes and was shot in Connemara & Dublin, Ireland; New York; and Miami Beach, Florida.

GRADE: B-/C+

Really Odd

[oclaros1 · 3/10 · 6 March 2002]

This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. However, the little slave girl, Alice and Jared Harris imitating Christopher Walken is what makes this movie entertaining. Alice's smoking, drinking and uncanny way of showing up when her name is called is strange and interesting. I have to applaud Jared for his Christopher Walken imitation, and Christopher Walken for allowing this to be in the movie.

Atmospheric and fun

[rgonzale · 10/10 · 5 January 2004]

If you are looking for a slasher or a monster movie, you will be disappointed. If you are looking for a moody, humorous, beautifully-shot B movie, this is it. As in his previous film, Nadja, Michael Almereyda's "monster" has human frailties and desires. He manages to find humor in his characters' constant drunkenness (why did they come to Ireland to try to dry out!?) and conveys this drunken feeling in the way the scenes cut from one to the next. The inventive cinematography leaves several scenes etched in your memory, and the sometimes-trip-hop soundtrack is very hip and lends to the dark mood. The pacing starts out slow but becomes engrossing and heart-pumping.

In the end Trance/Eternal/Kiss of the Mummy is a fun film and merits multiple viewings. My sole complaint is that the visuals and the soundtrack really deserve and would benefit from large-screen presentation.

A Mummy Film in Ireland!

[Jeremiah-8 · 7/10 · 19 October 1999]

For the art house crowd comes this critically panned film never released theatrically in the U.S. `Nadja' director Michael Almareyda comes up with his skewed version of The Mummy, complete with hip characters, fun surprises, a great alternate music soundtrack, Christopher Walken doing a Irish accent but otherwise being his quirky old self, brilliant cinematography from Jim Denault and a flair for the unexpected.

The perfectly enjoyable heroes are Allison Elliott and Jared Harris, as a cheerfully drunken couple going to Ireland to dry out. The movie acknowledges the "alcoholic" problem by having them not deal with it or call attention to it, and it's to the movie's credit that it's never an "issue" or makes them into completely awful or unbelievably irresponsible parents (they're just normally irresponsible, like most parents.)

* * * for The Eternal, an imperfect gem.

oh my god bad

[mindfire-3 · 1/10 · 3 July 1999]

This is some of the worst acting I have ever seen. I love Almereyda's Nadja, but this is just absolute dreck. Aside from a few moments of interesting cinematography and music this film is just nonstop bad acting and dumb material. Jared Harris is particularly bad, but no one in this is remotely good. The plot is a joke, but not the haha kind. I don't even know if you can forgive movies that are this bad. Please erase the last hour and a half of my life. How did this director make Nadja and Another Girl Another Planet?

ethereal...

[CandyR · 17 June 1999]

A very interesting story. I think this film could have been so much more with a bigger budget. In my opinion, this was a very marketable movie idea with not enough financial backing. I would have liked to have seen more of Christopher Walken and even more chilling special effects throughout. The dialogue was a little dry, but was saved by the great cast. This movie is worth seeing at least once. It would have been better to see on the big screen but was only released direct-to-video in the U.S.

Moody Irish Horror Film Bogged Down By Meandering Script

[Sandoz · 5/10 · 22 August 2007]

I rented this film (which was packaged on DVD under the name The Eternal, which is, I believe, a much better title--and one less open to pithy put-downs than Trance) without really knowing anything about it...

This film was intriguing for many reasons, among them: Chris Walken is in it (albeit too briefly, just a couple of scenes--must have been a weekend's work for Chris here); it was made in Ireland (I wish it had more exterior scenes, though--most of it takes place inside a not-so-creepy old mansion out in the countryside, with just a few meager establishing shots at the beginning, and a couple of brief forays to the local beach for a couple of flashback shots); and, most importantly (to me, anyway, since it's one of my favorite genres), it's about the supernatural.

But ultimately, while I think the story has a decent (if not particularly original) premise, the final version of the script still needed LOTS of work before production began, because something very important was missing from the completed movie, and that is some enveloping mood of dread and foreboding that a story about Druid witch's spirit possessing and inhabiting a young wife's body should have had. Trance seemed to me like a series of scenes with actors going through the motions of a poorly conceived thriller, with never a sense of menace or even of concern for the fate of the family. The only real menace the film achieved was when the local Irish lads (one of whom Allison Elliott's character had a "history" with before she left town) showed up to harass and threaten her and her family. However, this side-tracked the film into Straw Dogs territory and added little to the progression of the real plot, except to show that when Elliott was possessed by the Druid's spirit she was more than able to defend herself than when she wasn't (and became slightly comical, too, because all her husband managed to do was keep getting himself hit on the head and knocked out).

Don't get me wrong--there's plenty of movies out there that are ten or fifty times worse than this one is, but still...Trance just doesn't quite make the cut for me (and by that I mean I don't wish to own this film on DVD to watch again). Being generous, I'd rate this a 5 out of 10.

Oh, and one last note, I have to credit this film with introducing me to two Irish musical acts which I had never known of before, but because of Trance, managed to download their songs that are used in the film because I liked both of them very much (even though they are completely opposite each other on the spectrum of musical tastes): Stiff Little Fingers--an Irish Punk band whose cover version of a reggae song called "Johnny Was" is a fantastic hard-edged guitar 7-minute epic jam fest; and Joe Dolan, of whom I had never heard of before, but was evidently the Tom Jones of Ireland back in the 60's and 70's, and whose "Good Looking Woman" sounds exactly like the kind of cheesy, horn-blaring over-produced song Jones and even Elvis would have sung in their Vegas heyday periods.

and a P.S.... Check out Allison Elliott in Steven Soderbergh's little seen The Underneath. She plays the femme fatale in a modern film-noir that, like Trance, isn't a complete success, but has some good moments which show what it might have been, if...

So what do YOU think they're doing?

[AnnieP · 1/10 · 12 October 1999]

Well - when the cameo appearance of Jason Miller (looking even more eroded than he did in Exorcist IV) is the high point of a picture, what've you got?

It's a little bit country, a little bit rock n' roll: mix two drunks with money who drag their kid all over the place with a bog-dried mummy (have you figured that one out yet - DRIED in a bog?) in the basement, Christopher Walken with a bad dye job, and a little girl who might have been an interesting character if they'd developed her.

I understand - sort of - that they're going back to visit her relatives. After that....

Problem: There are several interesting flashbacks to what I must assume is her mother being killed in a car bombing (I think). This is never connected to anything.

Problem: What do we need the grandmother for? Now, the grandmother could be interesting. She speaks Gaelic, or Celtic, or something. Maybe you can make something of her. The best they can do is that she 's got a tobacco habit. That's all.

Problem: They cast a real shifty character as the husband. Is he type-cast (will he sell his wife to the devil? Maybe he can look forward to the trust fund he manages for her)or is he cast against type (after all, he has a good haircut and nice clothes)? He drinks, he hesitates. He's not a bad guy. Not a good one. But dislikable. Why didn't they DO something with him?

No problem: an old boyfriend shows up. The husband knocks him down. He comes back to knock down the husband. (It gets pretty stupid, but at least THAT character has motivation.)

NOW - she's an alcoholic, he's an alcoholic; he might only have married her for her money. The grandmother is locked in the bedroom. The blind uncle takes our heroine to the basement to show her the mummy of a witch (are you following this?) who may come to life. In fact, you KNOW she'll come to life, the music swells. A little girl lives in the house, takes tea to the grandmother (unlocks the door to do so) and provides granny with cigarettes. Periodically, granny gets out. But nothing happens.

Husband and wife lose the kid in the house, subsequently lose their bedroom. Uncle gets his throat cut in the basement. The leading lady has nose-bleeds. The husband drinks. They both drink. In the face of all of this, the awful truth alluded to in the first over-voice is - omigod - an abortion when the leading lady was twelve years old.

In spite of all these dangling-thread ingredients, nobody managed to get a story on the screen. No bridge between situations, no graduation from mild disturbance to awful horror, just long slow scenes that go nowhere.;nbody, really, to care about - and they had places to go with that aspect - the innocent kid in the charge of drunks,the grandmother who might be locked up because she's a monster, but no, her worst fault is smoking. She's got great hair, good makeup.

In short, no plot. Just a little random (predictable)violence in a dark library, with the rain gushing in, and the sound track cuing us in. You need more than a few drunks and Christopher Walken to make a movie.

The production values were good. Oh. Nice scenery, good wardrobe. The cameraman, at least, knew what he was doing.

I bought it. Poor me.

Waste of Money, actors and time

[Dennys Nery · 1/10 · 6 July 1999]

This is a total waste of money. The production is poor, the special effects are terrible. In my country they had the courage to put this film on video named as "The Mummy" because of the success of Brendan Fraser`s film. I`m sure that you can find better horror movies.

Ugh.

[banditmia · 2/10 · 23 August 2003]

Yikes did this movie blow. The characters were weak, the plot weaker. I figured this couldn't be too bad because it has Christoper Walken, oops. He must have done this because he was bored and needed the money. The characters were supposed to be Irish but noone had an Irish accent. I am desperately trying to find something nice about this, I can't except Walken did a fine job with a wooden character. Find something to read, or watch discovery, don't ever see this movie.

Straight to Trash Can

[blade-21 · 1/10 · 30 April 2000]

Dooohhh! My Bwainn Hurrrts! Well it certainly does after this endurance test of a film. How on earth I managed to keep going without hitting the fast forward button lord only knows.

Maybe it's me!!Maybe I don't get the premise of the film... or maybe I don't appreciate it's alleged mystical atmosphere. In my humble opinion though the film has about as much mystical atmosphere as a trip to McDonalds.

In addition the characters were all dreadful and there is more character development in a Tom & Jerry cartoon. Yaarrrghhh! Why do I do it? why do I watch such tripe? It's enough to make one run away and join a monastery or the Foreign Legion!! YAARGH!! An absolutley dreadful film in just about every respect. Apart from that it's not to bad.

an unusual horror movie with some big pluses

[FieCrier · 7/10 · 22 December 2005]

This is an unusual horror movie that won't be to everyones' tastes, though I think it's probably more accessible than the same director's unusual vampire movie Nadja.

Nora and Jim travel to Ireland, so that their young son can meet the mother's ailing grandmother. Nora's uncle is caring for her, with the help of a wise young girl named Alice that he has adopted. The uncle is decidedly strange (that he's played by Christopher Walken should be a clue), and has an obsession with a mummy in the basement. The mummy is an Iron Age Druid witch who had been preserved in a peat bog.

Nora and Jim are very much in love, and love alcohol; they're a little bit like Nick and Nora Charles of The Thin Man series. Nora's been having blackouts and visions that are possibly unrelated to her drinking, but she is supposed to quit drinking anyway. Nora begins to wish she hadn't returned home to Ireland.

Among the really strong suits of the film are the excellent cinematography and locations. They can be chillingly beautiful at times, as is the soundtrack.

It has a great song by Cat Power, "Rockets," which is on at least a couple of her albums. I first learned of her from this movie, and am very glad I did. It has a great song by Varnaline, "Sweet Life" (incidentally, available in Real Audio form on their official website), which plays on the jukebox at the Irish pub. It has a great song by Episonic, "My Head Becomes the Sky," which plays over the end credits. The score is also quite effective.

Great storyline, flawed execution

[dknoch · 4/10 · 11 December 1999]

The writer came up with a pretty decent idea for a story, but many flaws in the execution of the plot took so much away from the film as to nearly render it unwatchable. Basic elements such as character development were glossed over, at best. Inconsistencies also reared their ugly heads. A massive mansion in the middle of the rural Irish countryside? Characters just "showing up" in the gardens during a stormy night (at very convenient times, I might add)? All in all it wasn't "bad". I rated it a 4, based mostly on the story and talent of Alison Elliott.

The Eternal: a terrific, moody Irish horror movie

[JDHOPPER66 · 9/10 · 28 September 2004]

This movie is NOT a thrill-ride horror movie, which may be the reason many seem not to have liked it. It's slow, character-driven and moody, but I loved it.

From the opening scene of a young girl on a spooky Irish moor to the last image of a woman in a white dress sinking down into the endless black of the sea, I found this film enthralling.

Other things I love about this movie: The opening song, with the line "And no one is afraid/Of themselves" (a key to the characters' struggle)--- The cry of anguish when a mother finds her son dead (we see it but we can only imagine the sound of it)--- Death by shards of a broken rock-and-roll album (and the cutaway to the murderess on the beach, sad but resigned to the fact of her own survival).

These are only a few of the poetic moments of this movie. Love and death. Guns and liquor. A true black-Irish sense of humour. A great horror movie for grown-ups, and for children wise beyond their years.

This was an odd experience....

[Middelkoop · 6/10 · 9 January 2003]

This movie was, as some other people already said, very vague. I found this movie in a discount box at a local record store. That is exactly the place this movie should be found in. I wouldn't say this movie was bad though. The camera work was excellent; the eerie atmosphere was really clear throughout this movie, but the storyline was just to flawed to actually make out what really happened, or what was meant to happen. Some scenes though, were just irrelevant, like the one where old lover Joe suddenly came to the house again and, well, didn't really have a further contribution except dying. Plus I wonder what the whole point behind the couple's drinking problem was. It clearly didn't have any further added value to the story. Overall, I would say this movie could have been a lot better if the storyline were worked out in a better way.

6/10

Evil sleeps, and so do we

[ipswich-2 · 3/10 · 13 April 2000]

A young American woman visits her Irish roots and fends off a druid witch who is out to possess her. Sounds intriguing but after an interesting start, I got lost and spent most of the time wondering where it was going. The movie seems to be dithering in two directions -- are we watching the travails of the Irish-American woman battling her alcohol problem or are we watching a straight off horror flick about an evil witch that returns from the past? The director can't seem to decide. The two doesn't seem to gel and in the end you get nowhere. This could be so much better done and the story seemed to drag towards the end. This was most boring and disappointing.