‘Desecrated’ Review
Stars: Haylie Duff, Wilmer Calderon, Michael Ironside, Paul James, Gib Gerard, Gonzalo Menendez, Heather Sossaman, Adam Daniels | Written by Cecil Chambers | Directed by Rob Garcia
After finding his family murdered by vagrant squatters, an ex-military operative and survivalist is hired by the man who bought his land to watch over the acreage and protect it from invaders. When the new landowner’s daughter arrives for a weekend getaway with her friends, the trip turns deadly when they discover the caretaker’s dark secret – rather than driving off trespassers, he’s hunting them in cold blood.
A group of college kids on spring break, driving out to the middle of nowhere to stay for a holiday of fun filled fun? Must be a horror film then! Despite starting like so many other films in its genre, Desecrated does, thankfully, provide an interesting viewing experience once it gets going. Ben, played by Gonzalo Menendez, is our psycho killer in this fun little tale. Driven insane by the loss of his family, this happy chappy likes to hunt down people in his spare time. Classic horror villain really. Except, he isn’t. Menendez does a really amazing job of portraying this guy. Even though in one of the first few scenes of the film you see him brutally murdering people, later in the film makes you will still find yourself thinking “Is this guy really that bad?” Sometimes he comes off as a guy who is just trying to do his job and help out, but the main characters seem unable to listen to what he tells them!
That leads me nicely onto my next point. The ‘good’ guys. The college kids. Honestly, I don’t think I have ever agreed so much with a psycho killer. Seriously, if these guys could just follow simple instructions I am sure they would have ended up a lot better off! (Well… maybe). I am going to be brutally honest here. I didn’t warm to any of the main victims… er…. characters in this film. I just didn’t like them. They were whiny, stupid and all round annoying and when they are killed or maimed or whatever shenanigans they get up to, I won’t lie, I was totally fine with it. Does that make me a bad person? Possibly. Probably not something I should bring up in my therapy sessions….
The story as a whole is pretty standard. Your classic ‘psycho killer takes out ignorant college kids’ romp, but the character Ben really throws it into a bit of a spin as you wonder what his motives are and if he is really as bad as he is made out to be.
I mean, he is a psycho murderer but maybe he is a NICE psycho murderer.
OK, maybe it isn’t as hard to figure out as I suggest it is, but I found Desecrated to be an entertaining movie and would definitely say it is worth checking out if this is your kind of film.
Desecrated will be available on DVD and VOD from January 6th, courtesy of Uncork’d Entertainment.
