The Shadows (2011) User Reviews

Amazing Ghost and Pirate in Lighthouse tale .

[guestar57 · 5/10 · 15 September 2010]

Starring: Vaz Andreas, Nalita Murray.

This film is pretty amazing seems set was half a light house and the shadows,literally.

Acting was great and real,Some seem to really know the craft of performance.

Minor flaw,and We know it has to be dark for shadows,BUT sometimes its too dark in a scene.

The pirate character was awesome and the wench who didn't know she was dead.

Vaz and Nalita steal the movie with strong scenes in focus of plot.

Vaz has been in many Theasylum mockbusters. this was Nalita screen debut and she nailed it.

Short on horror, more of a soap opera, and very confusing

[aztrshbyz · 4/10 · 31 May 2017]

"The Shadows" is a very strange film which leaves a lot to be desired. No decent explanation is given of the events so no resolution is ever found. The movie itself doesn't make much sense either.

Let me give you some examples. Some friends are out in their boat and have a shipwreck which we don't see. When they find shelter in an old lighthouse, interestingly enough, their hair isn't even wet. Their clothes, however, are, and they are able to find some clothing that fits them in a lighthouse that appears to have been abandoned for some time. In the opening credits, the lighthouse is lit and working, but when they get there, it isn't (it is turned on later in the film by a character who may or may not be a ghost). Conveniences abound - somehow or another, they were able to save the ship's radio and lo and behold, one of the women knows how to fix it. Old guns are found and one of the characters knows how to load them (they don't take modern bullets). And the list goes on and on.

Affairs, previous and current, are revealed along with the appropriate soap opera music. They don't appear to have anything to do with the horror plot line and had no effect on the outcome, such as it is.

The horror aspect of the film is incredibly confusing. It appears that the lighthouse is haunted by a Latino woman and some pirates. It is theorized by one of the characters that they might actually have died during the shipwreck and are ghosts themselves, but we never quite figure out if that is the case. To make things even more confusing, many of the scenes are dark (the film takes place during the night) and it can be difficult to see what is happening. I'm assuming that the characters were being attacked by pirates, but don't know that for sure. It remains unclear why the movie is titled "The Shadows" unless they are talking about the scenes that weren't lit very well. I will say that I found the outside night and storm shots quite nice though.

I can't, in good conscience, recommend this film unless you really like movies that make no sense whatsoever.

Can't hide from the shadows.

[michaelRokeefe · 6/10 · 20 February 2015]

Not necessarily low-budget, but THE SHADOWS feels like it is lacking something. Nonetheless a nice chiller as it gets going. Five friends survive a wreck at sea and find shelter on an island near a lighthouse. They manage to find an old uninhabited house that brings many assumptions with strange found artifacts. While a storm brews, the group becomes troubled with unexplained noises and the belief they are being watched by weird shadows that seem menacing. These friends become more unsettled as secrets among themselves are brought to light and if the atmosphere is not creepy enough...a scattered young woman comes storming through the door warning of pirates on the way. By the woman's demeanor it is not clear if the pirates are real or just her imagination. As the group prepares for the worse, it is believed the pirates may be shadows of the past wanting to do them harm.

The cast features: Elizabeth O'Brick, Nalita Murray, Vas Andreas, Jennifer Boarini and George O'Kreenke.

"Keep calling out. Maybe someone will hear us"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 3/10 · 21 May 2017]

Watching a bunch of dull characters mainly in one room screaming and behaving stupidly for 1 hour 29 minutes can be a trying experience and this was certainly that. It also made no sense whatsoever. It seemed more like a soap opera with horror bits thrown in to pad out the time. After trekking my laborious way through it hoping for some clarity to emerge one never knew what The Shadows were, whether the characters were dead and what the ending meant. Apparently The Shadows take you and you never come back but that is all the character development they get. The film is not helped by the acting.

It does have an effective use of the song 'I Dreamt That I Dwelt In Marble Halls' over the opening credits and the sound was quite atmospheric, credit to Darcel Walker but apart from that the movie should go back to the shadows (and never come back).

The Shadows: What a mess

[Platypuschow · 2/10 · 30 August 2017]

The Shadows is one of those Youtube movies I picked to kill 90 minutes and another embarrassment that I wish that I hadn't.

Telling the story of a group of friends who after a boat crash find themselves taking refuge in a seemingly haunted light house.

The plot makes very little sense, the execution is dreadful, the movie is often so dark you miss whats going on altogether and there are plenty of scenes that are unintentionally hilarious.

Pitiful attempt at a horror which is also labelled as a mystery and a er....romance!?

The Good:

The setting, when you can actually see it

The Bad:

Awful sound editing

Dull characters

Why does such a great setting look so drab?

Poor soundtrack

Laughable soap opera level acting

Ridiculous cgi

Yeah, alright. Zzzz...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 27 December 2015]

"The Shadows" is listed as a movie under horror, mystery and thriller. But wow, this was a snoozefest of untold magnitude. I started drifted away from the movie early on, and the movie never managed to fully captivate me or lure me back in.

Five friends are stuck at an old lighthouse, trapped by circumstance and trapped by a storm. They soon start having to face their own dark secrets and fears.

Right... Well, the storyline seemed to have potential and might have worked on paper. But director Sabrina Mansfield failed to bring about a properly entertaining movie.

The characters in the movie were one-dimensional and you never even once connected to anyone of them. And the cast, while trying their very best, just didn't have anything tangible to work with.

"The Shadows" is an excruciating movie to get through given its slow pace, inadequate storyline and lack of enthralling characters. "The Shadows" should stay in the shadows, shrouded and hidden away.

If you enjoy a proper mystery then "The Shadows" should not be your first of movie choices.

89 minutes of my life I will never get back!

[guitargirl-44720 · 1/10 · 9 January 2016]

I wish I'd read Paul M H's review before spending time on this film. His review describes this movie perfectly. The story is weak. The scenery is weak. The actors tried, bless their hearts, but there really wasn't much for them to work with. It was hard to care about any of them.

There really isn't much else to say about this film, except that you may do better find an alternate.

I would stop typing, but IMDb won't post my review because I didn't provide enough sentences/characters. So I will type on to save someone else 89 minutes of life that is better spent elsewhere. I would prefer to keep this short and sweet, but, alas, the website will not permit such brevity.

So, if you like weak stories, dark and simple scenery, scripts that don't set the scene, unbelievable characters that come from nowhere, have at it!

Watch it on fast forward

[MaddHatterDeplorable · 2/10 · 30 September 2021]

This movie was included in a "10 Horror Movie" DVD set.

And it's horrible. Don't waste 90 minutes of your life. If you have to ..... fast forward

How it averages 5 stars is the real mystery. Filmed in one room. Very "soap opera"- ish

Picture quality and audio are bad too.