JACK BROOKS: MONSTER SLAYER is one of those movies I’ve found myself arguing over with many folks. Everyone seems to really dig it, for the most part, but I found it pretty dull, with an unlikable hero and a ho-hum storyline. Yes, it gets fun in the final reel, but everything that comes before that is, for me, rather lame.
I haven’t written off director Jon Knautz, however, because he seems like a real-deal horror lover, and I’ve always got to respect one of our own. I’m looking forward to his follow-up feature, THE SHRINE, which is premiering at FantasiaFest on JULY 25th. (For ticket details, head on over HERE.) The site has posted a few news stills from the flick, which we’ve got for you right here. There’s also a new, lengthy synopsis to go along with them:
A small group of American journalists embarks to a remote Polish village in search of (the likely remains of) a U.S. backpacker who vanished off the face of the Earth. His disappearance has been linked to the distant village in question, and the journalists arrive hoping to find answers. Answers they will get, and it’s not going to be pretty. Because the shadowy village of Alwaina is a place of very old, very terrible secrets, and of even worse cultural traditions. It begins when the reporters uncover a pagan-looking shrine surrounded by a mysterious fog that hangs frozen in the air, unmoving and deathly. This rouses the already somewhat hostile locals fully against them. Things take an even more sinister turn towards the demonic, pitting our heroes against inconceivable, unforgiving terrors that begin to emerge throughout the village.
THE SHRINE stars Aaron Ashmore, Cindy Sampson, Debra McCabe, Connor Stanhope, Monica Bugajski, Meghan Heffern, Ben Lewis and Trevor Matthews. It doesn’t yet have a release date set.