Film Review: The Other Side of The Door

 Genre: Horror

Cert: 15

Director: Johannes Roberts

Screen writer: Johannes Roberts,  Ernest Riera

Starring: Sarah Wayne Callies , Jeremy Sisto , Sofia Rosinsky , Logan Creran , Suchitra Pillai , Javier Botet , Shoa Hussain , Mishti Bangera

Running time: 1h 36 min  

Parents advised to read before viewing film as some scene may contain scenes unsuitable for younger viewers.

Sex & Nudity: A couple passionately kiss, she takes her top off and they kiss. No nudity seen, very brief. Lasts about 10 seconds.

Violence & Gore: The film contains a sequence depicting a child being possessed and an exorcism attempted. The possessed child is implied to kill the family's pet dog before slashing her father in the abdomen where some bloodletting is seen. Following that, she is held down by some shamans for some time, with one of them aiming a knife at her. The scene ends when the spirit leaves the child's body and enters her mother's body.

Profanity:  Mild to strong

Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking: none

Frightening/Intense Scenes:

This is a horror film revolving around a mother who struggles to come to terms with the death of her son . Unable to accept his death, she conducts an ancient ritual to say a final farewell to him. However, she botches the ritual and inadvertently opens the door between the worlds of the living and the dead.

There are several jump scenes throughout the film, mostly in the form of sudden appearances of apparitions with mildly disturbing features, such as empty eye sockets or rotten flesh.

Aside from these, there are portrayals of an otherworldly figure, which has disjointed limbs and a slightly ghastly appearance. This figure appears occasionally throughout the film, with some close shots of her broken fingers.

Official BBFC Rating: Rated 15 for strong supernatural threat, bloody violence.

Story: A family lives an idyllic existence abroad until a tragic accident takes the life of their young son. The inconsolable mother learns of an ancient ritual that will bring him back to say a final goodbye. She travels to an ancient temple, where a door serves as a mysterious portal between two worlds. But when she disobeys a sacred warning to never open that door, she upsets the balance between life and death.

Likes : Im aware of some negative reviews toward this film i wouldn't say they are unwarranted as a few aspects of this film could of been better , but to say this film was really bad ?......not really because it has some good point to it as well.

It does start off a little slow with the story establishing itself  at a steady pace working toward the point this film starts to get interesting , as we see the main character have a tragic event thing start to get a little dark as they are told there is a place where she can speak with the dead but she must not open the door.

This is where thing start to get out of control as she does something stupid & unleashing a force of unspeakable evil. Could i say this is where this film get frightening no not really but it has it moments where it get a little unnerving & unsettling , yes there are a few jumps in this film but it does lack something that could of made it more frightening.

The acting is brilliant from Sarah Wayne Callies she give an amazing performance in horror film with a great presence of mother trying to come to term with her lost but also being confronted but a supernatural force it very believable in her acting which make this a very believable story.

The horror aspect of this film is good in a places its maintains the dark atmosphere keep it slightly creepy at times with it back ground story of the place it all started from.

One thing that actually give this film its edge & watchable approach with the character Maria's story of depression , its this desperation that gives the plot an emotional edge while the Hindu themes and symbolism make it unique for an American horror film to be slightly frightening & dark. The movie had a similar vibe to The Grudge in in some ways that it used another country's culture to create a disturbing atmosphere for its characters & bring to life this dark supernatural story. 

The ending is actually unusual but not unique as this method of ending a story has been done before   but still pretty shocking ending as it doesn't end of a good note ,  It's not the best "American goes to a foreign country and s*** goes down" horror movie, but The Other Side of the Door is a decently some what slightly frightening supernatural movie with a great story.

Dislikes : Here the thing with this movie that directors need to take note of if they are making a horror film too work , look at the way the horror master made film Clive barker, Stephen king , john carpenter how they made their film creepy & frightening.

I feel with restricting the horror to a 15 cert you not get the film's full potential to be truly frightening sadly this is where this film has the problem , because i see alot of missing opportunity that could of made this a truly frightening film, it does lack this unfortunately which is a shame because the film story is amazing but its just let down by it lack of psychological supernatural concept that this film could of had, but still it a great film but just lower you expectation for it your be fine.  

Overall : Amazing story, slightly frightening little unnerving at time , does miss a few opportunity but good film

 

Rating: 4 out of 5 for entertainment / 7.1 out of 10 concept.