Elder Island (2016)
5/10
Somewhat lacking but still rather watchable
26 February 2017
Arriving on a secluded island, a film crew attempting to shoot a documentary on the islands' cursed history finds that a series of freak accidents on the island residents which signals the return of a horrifying legend come to life and must find a way off the island alive.

This one wasn't all that bad of a slasher. One of the finer parts of this one is the fact that this one plays upon the actual historical story as the basis for this one which is all rather nicely handled here. Taking the inspiration from the actual incident in American history and placing it within the confines of the traditional slasher set-up of the lone killer stalking victims in an isolated area makes this one come off rather nicely focusing on the horrific deeds to spurn the massacre. The reenactment to showcase the cause of the vengeance-minded killer with his flock being slaughtered in the past and what happened makes for a rather strong set-up that features more fun here with the released killer coming to life and taking his wrath out on the group. Those scenes, from the opening ambush of the couple on the beach to the killer stalking the professor alone in the woods and the series of encounters with the locals in league with the killer as they're taken out to the sacrificial space in the woods where the continual escapes brings them into the killer for a series of fine chases through the woods. That final confrontation where he takes out the remaining members of the curse also works with some nice action throughout here and even provides some decent gore effects wiping out the different parties. While these make for a fine enough time here, there's still some rather large flaws here. The film's biggest issue is that of pacing, as there's a great deal of time spent dragging out the backstory of the island and what happened to the followers as a part of the islands' folklore or not from what the islanders want people to know and then it rushes through the actual horror elements rather quickly so there are very obvious peaks and valleys in the film. The scenes of the group going around finding out information from the locals about the legend and it's history doesn't really offer up too many intriguing or fast-paced efforts throughout here while the other scenes of the townspeople trying to go around keeping their secret safely hidden aren't in the slightest bit interesting with the film really struggling during them and then coming to life with the few short, scattered action bites within here. Likewise, there's also the rather troubling motive here for what's the actual purpose of the curse since it makes no sense why a preacher enacts a satanic blood-curse or even what the point of that really is so the storyline for this one really stumbles. The last flaw here is the jarring and somewhat nonsensical editing done on the kill-scenes where they're all done in slow-motion with muted sound so it really draws the tension and suspense out of the moment knowing it's coming rather than doing anything else with it. These here really hold this one down.

Rated R: Extreme Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Brief Nudity and several mild sex scenes.
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