Sunday, October 16, 2016

Catacombs

(2007) ***1/2



Shy American Victoria visits her outgoing sister Carolyn in Paris. From the moment she arrives Carolyn seems determined to take her sister out of her comfort zone by scaring her, insulting her and bullying her at every available opportunity. She and her nihilistic friends take Victoria to a secret rave deep inside of the Catacombs. After refusing to go skinny dipping with the rest of the group Victoria storms off and finds herself lost in the seemingly endless maze. To make matters worse she finds herself being pursued by a homicidal maniac in a goat mask.

Needless to say an underground labyrinth containing the remains of 6 million skeletons is quite the ideal setting for a horror movie. This setting is exploited perfectly and I felt a genuine sense of anxiety and claustrophobia while viewing. Unfortunately the ending felt conceived at the last minute as though they suddenly decided it needed to end with a swerve. Catfreeek reviewed this previously and described it in further detail. I mostly agree with her assessment. Recommended!

3 comments:

AC said...

Too bad about the unnecessary swerve ending but otherwise looks great!

DKC said...

I agree on the setting! Octo, did Landshark and Jules come with us to catacombs or was it just us? Can't remember.
Anyway, glad to hear this (mostly) worked!

Catfreeek said...

Glad you enjoyed this, the setting is everything. Nice review.

Malevolent

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