Wordiezett So much average

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Coventry I certainly don't intend to say that "Shadow" is a bad film, and I don't even want to discourage anyone from watching it; the only thing that is simply undeniable is that it contributes almost nothing to the horror genre. The story, written by director Frederico Zampaglione , shamelessly cashes in on the biggest and most profitable horror trends of the new millennium, namely vicious torture porn situations (eerie devices in dark and sinister cellars) and silent & nameless creeps that mercilessly ambush ignorant tourists to feast their perverted torture fetishes upon. During "Shadow", I spotted elements and ideas that were previously used in films such as "Saw", "Hostel", "Frontière(s)", "Blood Trails", "Timber Falls" and possibly a few other titles I already forgot about. Relieved that he's finally back from serving in the Iraq war, avid bike rider David goes on an adventurous trip that was recommended to him by a friend. The area, known as "The Shadow", is breath-taking and David even meets the girl of his dream. She's a French beauty called Angelique and she's also obsessed with bike riding; what are the odds on that? Their freshly found happiness rudely gets interrupted when they run into a couple of redneck hunters and are forced to abandon their bikes to hide into the thick woods. Little does David know that this only the beginning of the nightmare, as the Shadow also homes a cruel and psychopathic creep who likes to torture people. The thing that surprised (or is it annoyed?) me the most is the severe lack of sick and nasty violence depicted on screen. All the shocking stuff, as well as most of the killings, occurs off-screen, which is quite unusual for a torture porn flick. The movie does manage to be reasonably suspenseful, especially because David and Angelique are nice and amiable persons, whereas the hunters are loathsome bastards, so during the cat-and- mouse games you automatically cheer for the biker couple. Experienced horror fans can also entertain themselves by spotting all the clichés, for example the soldier flashbacks or the "decorations" inside the maniac's lair. The whole ending is sort of like a mixed bag. I certainly admire Zampaglione's courage and ambition to try something completely different, but the result is principally unsatisfying and leaves quite a lot of questions unanswered. At least you cannot claim that the climax is obvious or even remotely predictable, so that's already an accomplishment on itself. Still, considering we're already in familiar terrain, I personally would have preferred more gore and bloodshed rather than a surreal twist- ending.

dangermous I was compelled to write a review after seeing some negative reviews. A lot of the other reviewers were expecting some kind of Italian horror like argento etc. When they didn't get what they expected they wrote a bad review.I cant stand those geeky Italian horrors from film makers like argento so my views are not tainted by it! just because the directer is Italian doesn't mean its going to be similar to those films dur.This film was nicely filmed in beautiful locations with some smooth editing and quality camera work. I was interested from start to finish in what was happening. For those reviewers who said the film was mixed up obviously didn't get what it was all about. I wont ruin it by telling you.There was some gruesome imaginative torture porn for those of that are into that sort of thing but what kept me interested was the creepy atmosphere and how invested i was in the characters struggle from the start of the film right through to the end. In summary really not bad for a lower budget film, a directer who knows how to capture the moment and not give us enough time to question what just happened before the next drama ensues! This is something Hollywood fails with again and again with every genre so i gave it an 8 / 10

lancer165 I have recently watched this story and have now read the reviews. My take on the ending seems to have missed the point if the other reviewers are accurate.I am reminded vaguely of a movie made many years ago with Timothy Bottoms and Donald Sutherland. Yes I had to look it up to get this right. It in my misty memory is a tale about a very seriously injured WW 1 soldier. We are here also treated to the many MENTAL visions with dialogue.While I don't think that we as viewers were deliberately given real clues. The tale just goes along with our hero and the potential love interest having a bad time with the stereotypical bad and hard people.The end tells me the THICKO that our story teller like in so many tales is either dead or in a seriously injured condidtion. In this case I feel that he like our man Joe in 'Johnny Got His Gun' mentioned earlier is living an unreal life due to memories imagined but we are privy at the end of the movie to a reality remembered as opposed to a reality created within an injured mind.Dreams tend to have a staggered unrelated sequence of events.The 'bad' tough men were his military colleagues, perhaps now dead, the operating theatre nurse his love interest the surgeons his torturers. I do not know about illegal drug affects but I was on legal serious medication for a few months post hospitalization and I remember having many seemingly realistic dreams. Some may call them out of body experiences.With my feeling that this is what was being told then the poor acting seen by so many is irrelevant. I am being told probably an all too typical in this age of young men being sent for slaughter in a difficult to understand the reasons why conflict area. Waking up periodically in a situation they cannot recognise. For that reason alone I feel that the film story is a little better than middling.I am not anti USA as such but at times it does take a lot to completely feel good towards them when certain combat reports are broadcast considering we in the UK are not only tarred with the same brush but have so many wishing to emulate perceived behaviour as in the movies. That was just to let anyone reading know that I have no political axe to grind. I served my own country for many many years both as military and latterly as part of the correction services.I do hope my take on the intended storyline is accurate.

ladyclipper Watched it last night and just loved it. Shadow it's a little independent film but very well made and truly suspenseful. All the actors do a great job and Nuot Arquint , the guy who plays Mortis is just amazing. The flick starts like a survivor horror , then turns unto a creepy and bloody story, but in a very natural and powerful way.The director is a famous rock star in his own country and I'm very surprised because he did such a great job. He can be easily seen like sort of Italian Rob ZombieThe shooting is excellent and the music just drives you crazy..on top of this I really liked the mountains, where everything takes place!wow !!! I wish I'll be there anytime soon.The ending is pretty sad, and tells something about horrors of war, but I can' t say more... don' t like spoiling. But that's a great return for Italy in the horror circus, after a long period of silence and bad moviesZampaglione definitely has a big potential to became one of the new Italian masters of horror !