The Reverend (2011)

I was kind of in a run of enjoying recent UK horror films, but this film is about the slowest 'horror' film I've watched since sitting through The Witches Mountain. You've all seen that, right? What's that tumbleweed doing here? Seriously, how can a film have Doug Bradley, Rutger Hauer, and Giovanni "John Morghen" Radice in it and have this have no effect on the film whatsoever? The film itself involves I'm guessing the devil (Rutger) offering up some sort of Job deal with God (Radice) so that some new Rev in England gets turned into some vampire type deal, helps out a hooker, takes on a rogue landlord blah blah.So much time is spent in this film with the main character struggling with his persona that the whole film is floored. It's very dull stuff. I don't know what folks are targeting Shane Ritchie because to be honest with you he's about the only actor here that injects his character with any energy. And I don't watch Eastenders for the record.Poor show, this one. I was all jazzed to hear Giovanni Radice was in it, but he's here for about three minutes. Complete wasted of time.

I got this from Poundland and was initially put off by the fact that there were some well known actors in it. Let me explain: I am into low budget Uk slasher type horror and famous faces tend not to be in the type of film I like. That said, the fact that it had Emily Booth in it was enough (and the price, £1) to persuade me to buy it. It was well worth it. Luckily RH and DB were in it only briefly. Whilst the story wasn't that original, it was well done, without that much gore. EB played a convincing and beautiful prostitute, why she doesn't do more films is a bit of a puzzle to me. The relationship between the rev and her was realistic and above what you might expect from a film of this type. The film had a good atmosphere and all the actors put in good performances. On the basis of this film I will check out more of Neil Jones's work. Recommended.

First of all, the plot summary here is completely WRONG, so feel free to ignore it. It's that age old tale of a young member of the clergy who's bitten by a female vampire, and decides to use his powers for good by decimating the local chav population, and giving a home to an abused prostitute. Well, he's got my vote! Oddly enough, he can wonder around in daylight and doesn't seem perturbed by crosses, so he must be a new SPECIAL brand of bloodsucker. Hmm... Anyway, the appealing lead is about the only noteworthy aspect of this Poundland production, which is chock full of substandard special effects, portentous dialogue and worst of all, Shane Richie embarrassing himself in a cameo appearance. Someone superglue him to the Albert Square bench already.

Stuart Brennan stars as The Reverend, a young man of the cloth, fresh from seminary school, he is assigned to his first parish in a small village in the country. On the surface the village seems peaceful, but there's a dark criminal underbelly, all ran by Harold Hicks (Hassan). One night, The Reverend is bitten by a vampire and he is turned into a bloodthirsty fiend himself. However, instead of using his powers for evil, he uses them to do God's work and clean up the village... by preaching to the churchgoers or by feasting on the criminal muck.The Reverend is based on a graphic novel of the same name and is unlike other vampire movies. Here, The Reverend vampire is a good guy and it's the humans that are the evil. In a way, The Reverend is like a superhero. Furthermore, there's no vampire clichés like crosses and garlic, as The Reverend uses the cross as his ally. The Reverend is also indebted to the Western. It might be set in rural Britain, but it wears its spaghetti influence on its sleeve; The Reverend is the hero who enters the corrupt town and clears out the scum while a blues guitar soundtracks his mission. Stuart Brennan is great as our unlikely action hero and steals the show. Tamer Hassan is Tamer Hassan like we've seen him before, albeit with a quaint country dress code. When you need an intimidating villain in a low budget British film though... Tamer is your man. I'd love to see him get a chance on a bigger movie. Emily Booth is both a pleasure and a disappointment; she's as beautiful as ever and her performance shows that she can act outside of splat-stick, sleaze ball trash. It's a different role for her and it's nice to see her try something new and do a good job, but she plays a prostitute and doesn't show her marvellous assets. Some boobs would have been awesome. Rutger Hauer and Doug Bradley on the other hand are nice to see, but they're only small cameos. Rutger is the main name being used to market this, so if you buy it for him then you might be let down as he's only in the prologue.There is some gore here to satisfy your thirst for the red stuff, and there's some pretty cool fight scenes. It does focus more on story over action though. Many reviews are criticising this already. To many this will be a turkey but it's not bad at all. By no means is it great, but it's an enjoyable way to pass 2 hours. The ambition perhaps outstretched the budget, but it's pretty decent considering it was shoestring. Overall, it's not perfect but it's worth checking out.