Desecrated   Starring: Hailey Duff, Michael Ironside and Gonzalo Menendez Distributor: TriCoast UK RRP: £TBC TRUK15 Certificate: 15 Release Date: 16 May 2016

Allie and her group of young friends travel to an isolated ranch house owned by her father. An ex-military man acts as the caretaker, and he takes his job just a little too seriously. Resenting anybody being on the property, he overzealously and quite ruthlessly protects the land. Even the visitors he is supposed to be safe-guarding are, in his view, desecrating what he views as his own demesnes... the land upon which his family were killed...

Desecrated is closer to a thriller than an out-and-out horror, and so undoubtedly owes more to Deliverance than Wrong Turn or Wolf Creek. As the viewer knows from the outset who the killer is, there is a Columbo-type feel to aspects of the format, and this knowledge removes any suspense there might otherwise have been. I’ve said before in my reviews that new or relatively inexperienced writer/directors tend to either create something original and fascinating on a meagre budget, or they churn-out hackneyed horror-by-numbers dross. I’m sorry to have to say that this movie falls fairly firmly into the latter category. What we are left with is a Ten Little Indians scenario where the players are nothing but canon-fodder. You just don’t care who gets killed, and that is due to no depth of character – even though the actors themselves are no novices.

It’s always great to see Michael Ironside, who has built up an impressive catalogue of villainous parts over the years. Here he is not the bad guy, and with only two or three relatively short scenes, doesn’t get the opportunity to be much of a positive influence on the film. You would think that a new director would want to make something a little different to get themselves noticed (pushing the boundaries); however, unfortunately, most seem to play it safe and, accordingly, are soon forgotten... or never attract the right attention in the first place.

This is not a bad movie in any single respect, it’s just a very average one with scenes similar to those we’ve seen in many other examples across the last twenty years or so. One more thing: the only true desecration takes place off-camera, when one of three man killed early on, removes rocks from a grave to place around a campfire.

5

Ty Power