The Binding (2016) User Reviews

Not enough horrific & thriller!

[lion_month · 3/10 · 3 August 2016]

As a big fan of horror films who has already watched more than 700 horror movies, I would say that this work was not good enough. I tell you why!

The movie was a story about a family; a couple with their little child. The husband was a priest who underwent possession. He thought to be bound to god and was commanded to sacrifice his kid for the god's sake as Abraham did. However, he was possessed by evil. His problem couldn't be solved by psychologist and exorcism until the end of the film.

As I realized. this movie was the first long film direction by Gus Krieger. I understand it was a cheap product but the story was not powerful and it didn't scare me at all. The movie did not have enough factors to thrill anybody. The movie, in fact, lack appropriate horrific music and characters. Josh Heisler, as the husband, was not a perfect option for this role and his action was weak and even Amy Gumenick as Sarah. It was better they could use a scary makeup for the husband. To this end, I gave 3/10. might be seen for only once but not definitely more!

The fears that bind

[TheLittleSongbird · 3/10 · 5 August 2018]

The low rating was not a good sign, and if other recent low-budget viewings were anything to go by was worried that it would be one of those that bad or worse films. But there was the concept, while a very weird one it was intriguing. So watched it anyway as part of one of my film and television quests (often completest).

Have seen worse films as part of my recent modest at best/low budget film quest definitely, but that is not saying that 'The Binding' is a good film. It isn't, not even close. It is also one of those films that doesn't intrigue at all, offers very little new (the concept was not a derivative one as such, but the execution is and is also too conventional and seemed resistant to take any risks. Got very little out of 'The Binding' sad to say.

One point in its favour is some atmosphere in the lighting, that is too far and between and is wasted by most of it being drab or too dark, a too compact setting, haphazard editing and some photography that induces nausea.

Direction is at best pedestrian and this does affect the pacing, which is sluggish throughout, and the direction of the actors. Excepting the lead actress, who is serviceable, the cast look uncomfortable and inexperienced and the character interaction is very bland and sometimes random.

From start to finish, 'The Binding' badly lacks tension or suspense, which immediately dilutes the thriller element. Nothing scares and it all feels too safe, which is why there is so much predictability. Everything is easily foreseeable long before it happens and the pacing is just too dull and the atmosphere too anaemic. The script never sounds natural and the cheese factor is high and the interest factor low as can be.

The story is ruined by being paper thin, useless padding and a very dull pace. It did feel too much like a short film stretched out to feature length with nowhere near enough content to fill it. At least it didn't leave me confused though. The characters are never interesting, even with few attempts to which are so flimsily developed that it is difficult to care for any of them, and frustrate with the way they behave. So many stupid and illogical character behaviours here matched by the far-fetched ending.

Concluding, a very weak film but not terrible. 3/10 Bethany Cox

Three times longer than it should be

[cyberknight · 3/10 · 1 October 2017]

It plays like a Twilight Zone episode, but it's 1h27min long, so, about one hour longer than it should be. The first actual action only happens after half an hour.

If you don't want to watch it, keep reading, otherwise, skip and go watch it. Yes, -= SPOILER ALERT =-, I'm going to spill out all the story (it's kind of necessary for my after comments to make sense).

The story is about a Christian priest, married, who starts receiving a commandment from whom he believes to be his god, every time he closes his eyes: to kill his daughter, akin to biblical Abraham (so is said in the film), otherwise, the world will be taken by darkness and horror. The priest believes it's a test of his faith in his god, while everybody else believes he is just going crazy, like another member of his family (people got killed because of that). As the film moves (slowly) forward, someone suggests it's not his god talking to him, but Lucifer, so he gets an exorcism done, which fails, but he doesn't tell anybody until the end of the film (surprise!) Just before that, we see a dream (supposedly his) commanding him to kill his "flesh and blood", which he interprets literally, killing himself, instead of his daughter. The last scene shows his wife sitting outside, at night, relieved that it's all over, when, suddenly, the city lights below start going off and everything gets dark.

The story was not original (recalled me of 1988's "The Seventh Sign", about sacrifices, and "Prince of Darkness", about prophetic dreams), but the film was just too long with too few happening on screen to be entertaining.

The director also doesn't seem to trust in tripods or steadicams, so the images are usually "shaky", like in the "Battlestar Galactica" television series remake, also with too close close-ups. It's pretentious, annoying and very distracting, something that didn't happen in "Absentia" (2011), for example, in which the camera style worked very well to add emotion to the scenes and the storytelling.

Boredom makes it fail as a thriller, the lack of tension makes it fail as an horror, the shaky camera and thin story makes it fail as entertainment and the supernatural ending just lifted the meter a bit, but not enough to save it. In the end, the question is not answered, if it was really a vengeful god or Lucifer messing around with the priest's head and the world (or if it was just a power shortage in the city, how dumb would that be?)

The Boring

[wrightiswright · 3/10 · 26 August 2016]

Wonder why I hate religion? Because, from my experience, it's the cause of most of the world's problems.

Check out The Binding, for example. Here we have a husband who flat out repeatedly states says HE'S GOING TO CUT THE HEART OUT OF HIS OWN BABY because of some dumb constant hallucinogenic vision of Moses telling him he must to save the world... and the reason why the wife doesn't flee to the cops straight away? Because she comes from a 'conservative' Christian sect, where the man is always the boss.

Instead, they see a pastor, who simply pays lip service to the problem by referring the man to a God fearing psychiatrist... who turns out to be even more of a nut job than the husband is. What are the odds, eh? Two bible-bashing wackos in the same community, in the heart of white collar America? Pinch me, I must be dreaming.

Anyway, the fact the wife stills stays with him after he starts drinking the booze and banging his head against the wall makes her almost as culpable as he is... until one day a Nice Man who's as deathly dull as her partner is bat sh*t crazy unexpectedly arrives on her doorstep one day, and they instantly hit it off. What odds to I get on him being the dude to save the day, take her away from this outdated, cult-like, scripture led hell?

Who cares. I'd given up by this point... After all, if the film I'm seeing has characters that are stupider than your average Jeremy Kyle guest and you're expected to sympathise with them, I bail.

Just a little rule I have. 3/10

Abraham's Imagination

[twelve-house-books · 1/10 · 31 August 2018]

"It was Abraham's imagination that led him astray," says the venerable old priest in explanation to the worried married couple. But really? Scripture in the Letter to the Hebrews contradicts this conjecture by stating that Abraham believed God would raise Isaac back from the dead once the boy had been killed. How many of us would kill our own children with full belief that God would immediately raise them back from the dead? None of us? Then it's best we don't practice the binding and slaying part, yeah? This film started out great. Really good acting, camera angles, lighting, pacing--and then the words of the foolish priest destroyed the whole story. That's when I shut it off and wrote this review. Too bad.

What you make it.

[lemmyhead · 7/10 · 13 March 2021]

As a film it's O.K. The acting is good even above par for a couple of the cast. This isn't really a horror in the conventional sense. No gore. No jump scares. No demons. No items of cutlery sticking in the ceiling. It's an exploration into belief, mental illness and how people react to these things. For instance, if someone hears the voice of God, how do we know that God isn't talking to them? It was personal to me. I had a friend who was very religious. He went to church and was part of of that community. He said that he prayed every day and everybody loved him. Until God answered him, then he was considered mental. It wasn't as if God was telling him to do something bad, just good things. This film goes into that in a bit more depth. What happens if someone hears the voice of God and it's telling them to do something bad? What if it isn't God and they aren't insane? If you like delving into these sort of questions, this is a film for you. It's not fast paced but moves along nicely. It does keep asking those questions.

He never came

[nogodnomasters · 6/10 · 29 October 2017]

Sarah (Amy Gumenick) is married to reformed drinker and minister Bram (Josh Heisler). They just had a daughter. Bram gets visions and a voice from God that he must kill his daughter (binding of Abraham, Isaac etc.) to prevent the apocalypse...which is part of prophecy.

The story is a long drawn out drama of Sarah taking precautions to isolate the child while getting her husband professional help, talking to everyone including Stuart Pankin. While the ending proved interesting, it took too long to develop to get there.

This is a film religious people might enjoy more than the rest of us as it concerns tests of faith.

Guide: 1 F-word. No sex or nudity

Objectively, not a bad film

[cjs6547 · 6/10 · 6 October 2016]

If you're either very religious or not at all this film might find a way to offend you. Just the thought that God-fearing Christians would deliberate 'visions of commandments of sacrifice' would be offensive to both God-fearing Christians AND atheists. But regardless we have to admit this is how some people in the world would ACTUALLY behave, and more people than we like to admit.

Yet in the end I was not left with any religious impressions - mainly just a very strong one of parental love. In the end I could believe that the father had been through torture (psychological and/or divine) and chosen to save his beloved daughter. I was disappointed a bit by the ending I must admit, to think that the director would end with something as ridiculous as an actual prophesied apocalypse is nothing short of thick in this day and age, and somewhat demeans the whole parental love motif that was going on, but at the same time, perhaps it heightens it. I don't know, and for that alone (for who cares about cinematography, score and whatnot when there's controversy afoot) I give it 6 stars.

The father having made his sacrifice, one has to wonder at the look of fear in the mother's eyes at the end and think, would she have done the same, and what would she do now?

A realistic dark drama about the psychological origin of the supernatural

[JofiElias · 6/10 · 8 September 2023]

"The Binding" is a movie that possesses multiple symbolic layers of meaning, showcasing Gus Krieger's exceptional mastery of his expressive tools. Initially we are induced to take it as a genre film, and I think that this label is the root cause of its low IMDb rating. When the viewers foreshadow an horror story centered around the devil, they are led to believe that the exorcism scene must inevitably serve as the emotional apex of the narrative. If that were the case, the film would be deemed disappointing, but such an assessment is far from accurate: the exorcism scene underscore the extreme ineptitude, fear, and confusion of the priest Uriel, who dispenses futile advices; facing a genuinely extraordinary event, he feels lost, especially since he himself no longer places faith in the church's ancient methods. If the resolution of all conflicts were to hinge on that single scene, the low rating would be correct. But there is far more depth.

"The Binding" is a realistic and complex cinematic work that derives its strength from the interplay between the metaphysical dimension and the psychological one. The anguish and fear conveyed by the protagonist, the highly skilled and intense Amy Gumenick, seep into the viewer's consciousness from the very first scene and persist throughout. When viewed through the correct lens, Gus Krieger's film emerges as a horror tale, not due the reiteration of the genre clichés but due to its profound thematic content. It doesn't rely on special effects to evoke a profound sense of disquiet, and provoke numerous philosophical questions about the nature of religious faith.

It's sad, but when a movie transcends the limitations of the genre stereotypes in order to deepen the human frailties, there is always a risk of failing to engage the proper audience and being misunderstood.

Underrated

[gianmarcoronconi · 6/10 · 10 February 2024]

This is not a real review, it should be understood more as a collection of impressions on the film.

The direction and photography are painful for a film which, however, as a horror film, is quite nice because it manages to instill in the viewer an aura of terror and anxiety that accompanies it from start to finish. So in my opinion it is a bit underrated because it could also aspire to a meager sufficiency because unlike many similar films at least this one tries to be slightly different and tries and succeeds very well in the horror task of scaring and it does it with some nice ideas and not with the jumpscare games with which horror classics now try to scare.