The Seasoning House (2012)

Sold at a brothel deep in the woods to work as a caretaker, a hapless deaf girl must summon the courage to fight for her life.

Director:

Paul Hyett

Writers:

Paul Hyett, Conal Palmer

Stars:

Rosie Day, Sean Pertwee, Kevin Howarth

3 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Rosie Day	...	Angel
Sean Pertwee	...	Goran
Kevin Howarth	...	Viktor
Anna Walton	...	Violeta
Jemma Powell	...	Alexa
David Lemberg	...	Dimitri
Amanda Wass	...	Arijana
Sean Cronin	...	Branimar
Tomi May	...	Aleksander
Emma Britton	...	Samira
Katy Allen	...	Tatjana
Thomas Worthington	...	Vinko
Gina Abolins	...	Jasmina
Dominique Provost-Chalkley	...	Vanya
Fabiano De Souza Ramos	...	Dragan

Storyline

In 1996, in the Balkans, the population of a small town is slaughtered by a militia under the command of the inhuman Goran that abducts young girls for prostitution in a brothel owned by the cruel Viktor. The deaf Angel that witnessed the execution of her mother has a weird birth mark on the face and Viktor chooses her to housework; to put makeup and drug the girls for the clients; and cleaning them up after the brutal encounters. Angel also sneaks between the walls and ventilation ducts during the night. Angel befriends the girl Vanya that knows the language of the deaf. When Goran returns to the house with his men, Angel witnesses one of them raping and killing Vanya and she revenges her new friend killing the man. Now Goran and his men are hunting her down and she is trapped in the house.

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Plot Keywords:

shot in the chest | shot in the head | 2010s | military | army | 

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Taglines:

A Ferocious Revenge Thriller.

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Genres:

Drama | Horror | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 June 2013 (UK)

Also Known As:

The Seasoning House

Box Office

Budget:

GBP850,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sterling Pictures Ltd., Templeheart Films, Filmgate Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Filmed Entirely in London, England.

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Goofs

The movie takes place in 1996 yet the wad of money contains the redesigned 5 dollar bill which didn't come out to 2008.

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Quotes

Viktor: [to Angel] One day... one day things will be different. We can go away from this place. This is why I do all of this. So we can be together.

User Reviews

The Pigs Have It.

The Seasoning House of the title is a Balkans Brothel, it's 1996 and young girls are being kidnapped during military attacks and sold to the owner of the Seasoning House. One such girl is Angel, a death and mute sufferer who the house owner takes a shine to and uses her as his assistant. When Angel strikes up a friendship with one of the girls, it is the catalyst for violence unbound.

A thoroughly bleak and distressing viewing experience, but in turn it's also bold and brilliant film making. Debut director Paul Hyett paints a grim portrait of an all too real problem in certain parts of the world, but thankfully he never once lets the material slip into exploitation territory.

The brothel is unsurprisingly an utterly desperate place, rife with squalor and abject misery. The windows are boarded up with crooked pieces of wood, the beds are filthy, the walls stained with years of dirty grime and the after effects of vile human actions. The girls are battered and bruised, chained to the beds and injected with drugs to make them compliant towards anything the human monsters so wish to do to them.

For practically 70 minutes we the viewers are holed up in this awful place along with the girls. Daylight is only briefly glimpsed through the window shards, we can smell the fear along with the dankness, and claustrophobia is rife. Angel (a brilliant Rosie Day) is our conduit as Hyett builds relationships between her and the two other main characters. Viktor (Kevin Howarth) the ruler of this vile kingdom, and inmate Vanya (Dominique Provost-Chalkley), the latter of which is deeply touching and superbly crafted by those involved.

Film then switches in tone after some truly awful scenes have paved the way for what transpires in the final third of the story. This switch to more conventional horror cinema has proved divisive, but the way Angel moves about the house, how she finds fortitude, is fascinating, and she has well and truly earned our utmost support as she seeks to erase some dastardly evil wrongs from history (headed by a suitably scary Sean Pertwee). This is not a cheap rape revenger movie, it's a survivalist horror, and some of the horrors inherent in The Seasoning House are tough to stomach, but necessary to balance the art and the reality. Stunning. 9/10