The movie is nicely set in rural Italy which lends to a lovely supernatural folky aesthetic. The storyline, while not being particularly original or unique, maintains an air of intrigue and unpredictability. The acting of the older family members is fantastic and a little creepy (good thing!) I wouldn't pay to watch it but is good option for a autumnal night in cuddled on the sofa.
54 Reviews
Not bad!
horrorules4 October 2020
This movie is a little and pretty low budget italian horror movie, with some scary moment and very cool cinematography. Cast is good, Scamarcio is a very underrated actor. The movie is little bit boring in the first part, but dark and scary in second and final part. My rating is 6/10.
Italian Folk Horror
Pairic4 October 2020
Warning: Spoilers
The Binding: An Italian Folk Horror film which doesn't live up to it's potential due to pacing and the way the plot is revealed. Emma is visiting her Fiance's mother's house in Southern Italy when her daughter Sofia is bitten by a tarantula. It soon becomes obvious that Sofia is stricken by something far more sinister. Folk Magic and Folk Remedies are used in a part of Italy which still maintains part of it's Pre-Christian traditions. Trees are healed but so are people. The illnesses are not always physical or mental but can be of the soul. When a ritual is attempted by an amateur there may be dire results. unleashing Demons. Apart from the terror induced by the appearance of the possessed there are some startling scenes which build the ever increasing sense of unease: trees uprooted, on their sides, the roots like tentacles; a crow eating another bird. The old house, creaks there are whispers, strange events occur. Plenty of positive elements which don't quite gel into the great horror movie this could have been. Definitely worth watching though. Directed by Domenico Emanuele de Feudis, screenplay by Daniele Cosci. On Netfix. 6/10.
Avoidable Sunday
faer_kr4 October 2020
An Italian terror attempt.
It is about a man who takes his girlfriend to his mother's house and his daughter begins to suffer strange situations from his presence.
Totally parsimonious, the first hour nothing happens. The last half hour is the one that develops everything.
Predictable like all of its kind.
Quality.
Performances at the level but nothing relevant.
The effects are fine, one that another is not fully achieved.
Talk about tie downs.
The ending is very simple and nothing spectacular. It remains owing.
Try to give suspense with hackneyed moments and situations.
Average horror movie
borgolarici6 October 2020
Amazing house!!!
reguizar14 October 2020
Super boring movie but with a ok cinematography, the actors were good, makeup was like "the evil dead" 1981 movie ... I definitely understand the tradition they are talking about but definitely they could have done it better. If I rate this movie by the times I got sacred or even surprise I will give this movie a 0, just because the acting. The best part is the picture form the credits
I liked it
eventlaunch5 October 2020
4
Edvis-199726 December 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Like are you seriously? At the beginning and until half of the movie I was thinking Ok, it will be like a bad horror film about mother who's a witch and uses black magic on daughter-in-law, but... After the half of the movie it started to be a nonsense. Someone killed someone, someone tried to cure someone, ghosts, trees, son is a bad guy, oh GOD, it just made me mad. Acting and special effects were fine, plot was awful so I can't manage to give it more than 4. I would never in my entire life recommend to watch this nonsense.
Much better than I expected
toddcha3 October 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Let's me start with the cons:
Too dark, sound effects not surprising, acting normal, easy to predict
Pros: not slow paced, it is a major point. has a twist: I thought Francisco mom is the one who conjure Evil but turned out I was wrong The mom and the help add more creepy elements to the taste.
If you expected bloods, dark magic, aggressive evil spirits, spooky ghosts, then you can skip this one. I didn't feel a moment when I wanted to stop because of being bored or feeling cliche about it. However I gotta say the plot is easy to predict but not logical.
Pros: not slow paced, it is a major point. has a twist: I thought Francisco mom is the one who conjure Evil but turned out I was wrong The mom and the help add more creepy elements to the taste.
If you expected bloods, dark magic, aggressive evil spirits, spooky ghosts, then you can skip this one. I didn't feel a moment when I wanted to stop because of being bored or feeling cliche about it. However I gotta say the plot is easy to predict but not logical.
The Boring
knightox5 October 2020
I wanted to like this Italian, supposedly horror flick especially since Halloween 🎃 is right around the corner. There was just one problem. It wasn't scary at ALL! 😟 Pretty much a predictable, slow burner 🕯with a dull twist.
Good to regulate...
RosanaBotafogo4 October 2020
I'm in doubt if I liked it, it's not bad, but I dispersed a lot, folklore (from southern Italy) is a great theme, the background, the relationship between parents and children, the rustic and poorly maintained location, all of this attracted me , passionate, but the story, I don't know, something more was missing, which didn't know how to identify what it would be, good to regulate...
A very normal horror
gianmarcoronconi21 July 2021
A very normal horror without great innovations that is added to the many already existing, despite this however it still manages to create a good atmosphere of terror and tension even if in the end some things remain unnecessarily unexplained and in the film there are some quite evident weft holes.
Caffeine is required.
richardwworkman14 February 2021
It took a couple of attempts to watch this, I fell asleep the first time round.
This film goes in hard with the uncanny. The first half is all creepy music and weird relatives talking secretively in hushed tones. Some herbalist witchcraft is going on and a lot of unusual activity seems to be centred on the daughter.
It takes a tortuously long time for it to become clear why everything is happening and when it does the same plodding pace continues.
A family history touched by tragedy and insanity belatedly reveals a possessive land spirit of sorts that's doomed to seek rebirth through vampire like taking of blood.
In principle is a great idea foe a horror film and something we don't see very often these days. The idea of malevolent forces operating just below the surface of modern life is good but the monotone presentation of this movie lets it down.
Not too bad a film but you may need a good strong coffee to get you through it.
This film goes in hard with the uncanny. The first half is all creepy music and weird relatives talking secretively in hushed tones. Some herbalist witchcraft is going on and a lot of unusual activity seems to be centred on the daughter.
It takes a tortuously long time for it to become clear why everything is happening and when it does the same plodding pace continues.
A family history touched by tragedy and insanity belatedly reveals a possessive land spirit of sorts that's doomed to seek rebirth through vampire like taking of blood.
In principle is a great idea foe a horror film and something we don't see very often these days. The idea of malevolent forces operating just below the surface of modern life is good but the monotone presentation of this movie lets it down.
Not too bad a film but you may need a good strong coffee to get you through it.
Just another run-of-the-mill horror movie...
paul_haakonsen18 November 2020
I must admit that I was definitely expecting a lot more from "Il Legame" (aka "The Binding") when I sat down to watch it. Especially because the movie's synopsis sold the movie rather well.
First of all, the movie is slow paced, very slow paced. And I must admit that I actually drifted off two or three times along the monotonous paced movie. The storyline was just way too generic to make it an interesting movie. There was nothing here that haven't been seen or done better in previous older movies. Which is kind of astonishing, taking into consideration that the movie had no less than 3 writers working on it.
Visually, "Il Legame" was good, but its atmosphere and special effects could only do so much to lift up the lack of a proper storyline and plot.
The acting in the movie was actually good from just about everyone included on the cast list. And this being an Italian movie, then there wasn't a single familiar face on the cast list for me.
For a horror movie then "Il Legame" just didn't cut it. It was way too bland and monotonous, which made for a less than mediocre movie for sure. My rating of "Il Legame" lands on a mere three out of ten stars.
First of all, the movie is slow paced, very slow paced. And I must admit that I actually drifted off two or three times along the monotonous paced movie. The storyline was just way too generic to make it an interesting movie. There was nothing here that haven't been seen or done better in previous older movies. Which is kind of astonishing, taking into consideration that the movie had no less than 3 writers working on it.
Visually, "Il Legame" was good, but its atmosphere and special effects could only do so much to lift up the lack of a proper storyline and plot.
The acting in the movie was actually good from just about everyone included on the cast list. And this being an Italian movie, then there wasn't a single familiar face on the cast list for me.
For a horror movie then "Il Legame" just didn't cut it. It was way too bland and monotonous, which made for a less than mediocre movie for sure. My rating of "Il Legame" lands on a mere three out of ten stars.
Average, run of mill. Nothing that hasn't been done before
Kimsy172414 September 2022
Warning: Spoilers
This film is indicative of pretty much every horror film on the market at the moment. Nothing overwhelming or different happens in the storyline.
It's very clear from the outset that the storyline was going to be that a family go back home to visit their superstitious and ritualistic elders. Whilst the trailer leads you to believe that it is the older members of the family who are responsible, it turns out in all too often visited twist that they are the ones actually trying to protect the family members against the dark force.
The acting itself was pretty solid, there were moments where the lighting was very dark and I struggled to see what was going on and at times I had trouble understanding whether Ada was dead or just possessed because of how it plays out in the beginning versus the end & I found myself getting a bit bored and reaching for my phone in parts instead of dedicating myself to the ending.
It's not bad, it's a run-of-the-mill horror. There aren't very many scary bits in my opinion, a few creepy bits if you're not a fan of people being possessed but overall I feel that it's lacking a certain something.
I enjoyed the idea behind the traditional folklore of "binding" and the scenery and set were visually pleasing. A beautiful old Italian house in the middle of nowhere with lots of land and as always, in desperate need of a lick of paint and a bit of modernising. However again it's a setting that's been used many times before so lacking originality in that part as well.
Overall it kills a couple of hours, it's not that bad to watch; just to someone who watches a lot of horrors it was a little flat for my liking.
It's very clear from the outset that the storyline was going to be that a family go back home to visit their superstitious and ritualistic elders. Whilst the trailer leads you to believe that it is the older members of the family who are responsible, it turns out in all too often visited twist that they are the ones actually trying to protect the family members against the dark force.
The acting itself was pretty solid, there were moments where the lighting was very dark and I struggled to see what was going on and at times I had trouble understanding whether Ada was dead or just possessed because of how it plays out in the beginning versus the end & I found myself getting a bit bored and reaching for my phone in parts instead of dedicating myself to the ending.
It's not bad, it's a run-of-the-mill horror. There aren't very many scary bits in my opinion, a few creepy bits if you're not a fan of people being possessed but overall I feel that it's lacking a certain something.
I enjoyed the idea behind the traditional folklore of "binding" and the scenery and set were visually pleasing. A beautiful old Italian house in the middle of nowhere with lots of land and as always, in desperate need of a lick of paint and a bit of modernising. However again it's a setting that's been used many times before so lacking originality in that part as well.
Overall it kills a couple of hours, it's not that bad to watch; just to someone who watches a lot of horrors it was a little flat for my liking.
Extremely boring, nothing new
gustheaffen5 October 2020
Snooze fest. Not remotely scary or anything unique or original. This story could have been told in half the time. Just your standard 'horror' flair today with the non ending. Typical Netflix original enough people try to say is good when it is just routine junk.
How much binding can you have?
kosmasp9 December 2020
I'm a bit of a sucker for low budget horror movies ... if they are done and played well. I might have given this a point or two more than some may feel this deserves. Yes we have cliches and yes this is quite predictable. Still it is a horror movie that works (all the bad character choices included) ... very well made and acted.
Suspend your disbelief and enjoy the ride. Effects are decent and story is ok too. It will not reinvent the wheel, it will also probably not make your top 10 list, but that does not make this a bad movie. Of course it may not be your taste ... there is no accounting for that.
Suspend your disbelief and enjoy the ride. Effects are decent and story is ok too. It will not reinvent the wheel, it will also probably not make your top 10 list, but that does not make this a bad movie. Of course it may not be your taste ... there is no accounting for that.
A total waste of time
kahvetrip5 October 2020
Not that bad
Calicodreamin9 October 2020
As far as horror movies go, not that bad, the scary lady was creepy as hell and good cinematography. Worked well with a low budget, keeping sets and cast small. The storyline was a bit too boring for the majority of the movie, but pulled through in the end.
Low budget horror movie
dy3849320 October 2020
Low expectations, great return
jcjunior-980716 October 2020
good story, well played, good atmosphere
HLEYE2 February 2021
Main actor wasted
Saoustou888 October 2020
At first glance it looks great especially as it's starring the versatile comedic actor Riccardo Scamarcio of 'The Ruthless'. However in this movie he forgot how to act. Or he was just as bored with the nonsensical script like the rest of us. Words failed me by 20minutes in when it dawned upon me that the entire cast also didn't know what's going on. Confusion is an understatement and let me not forget the lack of jump scares. Basically I don't know what movie the other reviewers were watching, but it surely can't be the same one.
This is my first review, but I signed up especially so you can save your 90minutes that you will never get back and skip this disaster.
This is my first review, but I signed up especially so you can save your 90minutes that you will never get back and skip this disaster.
Poor Movie
ticianevasco6 October 2020
Warning: Spoilers
It starts with a promising narrative, a thriller that gets your attention. Then, the main caracter gives away a story that has many flaws, there are no points connecting one another.
As the final moments of the movie approach, you don't know anymore what might be the explanation for everything that is happening. The dots just don't connect and you're left out like you missed something, and not in a good way of a well constructed narrative.
If you like jump scares (and only that), that might be a good movie for you. If you value the story, don't waste your time.
As the final moments of the movie approach, you don't know anymore what might be the explanation for everything that is happening. The dots just don't connect and you're left out like you missed something, and not in a good way of a well constructed narrative.
If you like jump scares (and only that), that might be a good movie for you. If you value the story, don't waste your time.
IKEA for candles
gurumaggie4 October 2020
This film is dark but only from lack of light, IKEA people please take note!
It's a good premise but it doesn't run with it, it ambles, nothing new here it's pretty much a channel 5/ hallmark 5pm on a Sunday, I wanted to like it the scenery is luscious and the sense of decaying grandeur is palpable, but it doesn't go anywhere.
It's a good premise but it doesn't run with it, it ambles, nothing new here it's pretty much a channel 5/ hallmark 5pm on a Sunday, I wanted to like it the scenery is luscious and the sense of decaying grandeur is palpable, but it doesn't go anywhere.
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