Rites of Spring (2012)

Not terrible, actually the 35-40 minutes are pretty interesting and fairly creepy during the horror portions and tense during the crime portions. I have to take serious mark down for having a weak ending (that I think was really meant to imitate Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and some logic issues about how the scenes with the kidnapper in the barn plays out. (Everyone is that close to him, he's assaulting a friend, but no one tries to kick/shove him off? Then he goes down and a dude twice his size doesn't take the opportunity to beat his ass? C'mon now.) That said, it's as fairly solid effort with good atmosphere and is well shot. Worth a view on Netflix or whatnot.

A ransom scheme turns into a nightmare for a group of kidnappers who become victims of a horrifying secret that must be paid every spring.Horror fans will instantly recognize AJ Bowen, the current independent horror go-to actor. Beyond that, many faces appear on screen that we may never see again. There is particularly terrible acting from the father character, which might take some viewers out of the movie.This might appeal to some people, but it never seems to quite capture what it was going for. While it starts as a kidnapping film, it turns into something like a poor man's "Jeepers Creepers". And even then, there is an undercurrent that is not far removed from "It". At no point does anything seem quite original enough to merit respect.

What start off are the often used pre-credits explaining the disappearance of women over the years in the area to only follow it up with a sequence of two young ladies one night being kidnapped. Where they awake to find themselves hanging from a rope in a barn. Then the story shifts to a group of clueless kidnappers planning a napping. At first I wasn't too sure if the scenes were somehow linked and it this was going to be told through fragmented flashbacks, but as it goes along we find out it's not the case. An old man who we see early on seems to have different intentions for these girls that involve springtime ritualistic sacrifices to a monster so he gets a good harvest from his cornfield, while the kidnappers actually have their eyes on a young daughter of a wealthy socialite. So firstly it moves back and forth, but how these two story threads come to meet, is that the kidnappers chosen hideout happens to be the area where the old man resides with his grim secret. Also there are some other twists in the story, which do seem a touch too convenient, but nonetheless never all distracting. When watching the indie horror "Rites of Spring" it was reminding me of a serious take of the British 2008 horror comedy "The Cottage" with lashings of "Jeepers Creepers" (2001) and "Malevolence" (2003). The action starts off quite slow, setting up the situation and trying to give the kidnappers some reasoning where it shows guilt soon overtaking certain participates. The traits, motivations and developments are beyond clichéd and the stupidity of certain actions only highlighted their inability to follow it through, but that's soon all forgotten when they become the hunted. Nothing fresh and simple-minded, but serviceable in its execution.There it becomes a conventional, but primal monster film, as the body count piles up and during the maniac final third the tension picks up with its typical chase format. It can be brutal, vicious and it doesn't hold back (as buckets of blood runs freely), but I didn't think it was as disturbing as it could have been, but it made up for it with its odd surprise or two. The last five minutes would have to be my favourite part of the film though, as it seems to open a real can of worms if there's a lot more going on than you were originally meant to believe. Then the final shot uses the foreground to great effect, having that potent old school touch where its pay-off is sudden but effective in that it leaves you hanging. Writer / director Padraig Reynolds goes for a moody / sullen approach in favour of build-up then anything truly flashy and illustrative, where he makes good use of the isolated backdrop and when he needs to crank it up, he does. The running time is only short, so I didn't find it to lull about. The script ably does the job despite some loose ends (which I don't find the creature's fate one, as I thought its obvious with the sequence that occurs after the credits have finished rolling), but won't set the world alight and the performances (especially AJ Bowen and Anessa Ramsey) are capable enough in delivering the predicaments. While another star the creature design "worm-face" is basic, but successful for such a low-budget horror film. It looks like some scarecrow come to life, with ragtag clothing and a decaying face with worms crawling about.

The plot: Kidnappers run into trouble when their story collides with another story straight from a direct-to-video 1980s slasher.Rites of Spring was assembled from scenes of several mediocre films and combined into one terrible whole. I don't understand why anyone thought it would be a good idea to plagiarize a bunch of mediocre slashers and then throw in an out-of-place, unresolved kidnapping subplot straight out of Ransom. The result was even worse than it sounds.If you're sick and tired of retreads, clichés, and "homage", then I suggest you avoid this film. There is absolutely nothing original in it at all. Even the kills are boring. Like most cheap slasher villains, this one has a shtick: he carries a scythe and likes to behead people. He has something to do with a demonic pact made by the inhabitants of a Midwestern town, but that's the extent of his back story. Overall, I found him to be without charisma or presence. Some of the scenes have a tense atmosphere, but the formulaic and predictable writing ruins everything. When you know who's going to survive, how and when each of them is going to die, and when each jump scare is coming, there isn't much point to watching.I like AJ Bowen and Anessa Ramsey, and it was exciting to see them together again, but this is not the film to watch if you're a fan of The Signal. Instead, I would recommend it to undiscerning fans of old-school slashers. If all you need are a few recognizable B actors, an unstoppable monster who's inexplicably stopped after 90 minutes of screaming and running, and a bit of violence toward women, then this is probably going to be watchable. However, I'd suggest you skip it and watch something better, like Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. Hell, you'd even be better off watching one of the Children of the Corn sequels, which at least have some degree of campy appeal.