Birth Rite (2003) (V)

User Rating:

3.8/10   

Director:

Devin Hamilton

Writer:

Devin Hamilton (writer)

Release Date:

22 April 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Fear the power.

Plot:

On her 18th birthday, Rebecca meets a mysterious man with magical powers. Roman, the warlock, shows...

Plot Keywords:

Warlock | Hanging | Shirtless Male Bondage | Human Sacrifice | Blood

Cast

Natalie Sutherland	...	Rebecca (as Natalie Anne Sutherland)
Danny Wolske	...	Roman
Laura Nativo	...	Erin
Brinke Stevens	...	Mona Proctor
Larry Dirk	...	Bill Proctor
Julie Strain	...	Ms. Carlson
Ronnie Gene Blevins	...	Paul Guilford
Kyle Lupo	...	Alex Proctor
Skye Stafford	...	Sarah
Jennifer L. Johnson	...	Tracy (as Jennifer Leigh Johnson)
Karen A. Smith	...	Ariel (as Karen Smith)
Chuck Kapinskis	...	Zephram
Lizzy Strain	...	Natalie
Steve Malis	...	Martinez
Brianna Malis	...	Young Rebecca

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, sexuality and language.

Runtime:

UK:82 min (DVD version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | UK:15

Company:

Magic Hat Media Inc.

Quotes:

Rebecca: I said *die*, bitch!

Decent horror flick, but far from great

I guess this is the new breed of film Charles Band is going to stick to. Birthrite is released as a Shadow Entertainment release with Full Moon nowhere to be seen in the movie except on the DVD case. I heard a rumor that Charles Band was dropping the Full Moon moniker. I suppose Full Moon has become like Empire Films, it's precursor. I've seen every single Full Moon release there has ever been and I am pretty much now convinced it's all super low budget outings from here on. Hopefully there will be a small percentage of good ones in the bunch.

I was expecting maybe a witch film like "The Coven" or "Equinox Knocks" which were both very low budget, yet quite entertaining. I did like Birthrite up until about 45 minutes into the movie. It got just a little ridiculous from there until the end of the movie. It took itself way too seriously about the "Powers" that it became mostly hilarious.

If there was a high point to the film it would be the first half of the movie which had cameos by veteran scream queens Julie Strain and Brinke Stevens. Julie Strain played a stressed out high school teacher, while Brinke Stevens played the adopted mother of Rebecca.

I won't say that Birthrite is not worth watching, it is entertaining most of the time for what it is. Just don't expect a masterpiece or anything. At least it had a better overall look than the recent Shadow/Full Moon films, and seemed to have somewhat of a larger production value. Hopefully the future films from Charles Band and Shadow Entertainment will get better...