Shadowland (2008) Reviews

• Very Gothic

  AlanaLO2010-08-17

  I just watched this movie the other day and I thought I should write a comment about it. It's sad that some people have decided to trash it for the sake of it instead of making a smart assessment of the movie and, most of all, praise the work of the independent filmmakers. You can thank the internet for it. A new breed of bullies has developed behind the computer's screen. It's like the new way to be a thug. A cyber-thug. In my opinion, the movie is very clever in presenting the Vampire genre from a different perspective: the female one. Tons of vampire movies are about the always dark-mysterious seductive male vampire. Not this one. Although there is a dark, seductive and sexy male vampire in Shadowland, it's the female lead who carries the torch. Many elements are similar to other vampire movies but hey! it's the same genre, right? so there should be similarities. However, shadowland gives an alternative to the otherwise always-gore-slashy vampire films. This one focuses on the humane part of the vampire. The acting was good for the most part, particularly the leads. Some of the supporting actors, in my opinion, were more theatrical and that's probably what people refer to when criticizing the acting. It's different to act on stage where actors tend to exaggerate movements, voices, gestures, etc than to act on film, and the viewers can pick on that. I once saw Meryl Streep on an interview where she said that acting on film should be like "not acting at all" because the camera multiplies all you do in front of it. The special effects were very good taking into consideration that the movie is independent and XF are very expensive. Kudos on that. The color of the film gives it a very Gothic feeling. I love that! I think the movie has great locations that blend perfectly with vampirism and gives a Gothic sense to the movie. The flashbacks are great also. Good way to explain what happened in the past. The end almost need a "to be continued..." because it's very clear that they are leaving the door open for a continuation. In summary, I liked it very much and I would recommend it to all those individuals who, like me, love the vampire world.

• The Vampire in Sympathetic Repose

  LARSONRD2012-09-22

  This is an interesting independent vampire movie that exchanges the gratuities of most modern vamp movies with a softly nuanced character-based story about a woman, staked as a newly-made vampire several centuries ago, who is accidentally awakened (via the old removal-of-the-stake-from-her-heart gag) in modern times, where she tries to find her old love while evading both police and a clerical vampire hunter seeking her demise – and continuing to deal with the tragic reality that she has been made a vampire. It's a very sympathetic story (without descending into saccharine TWILIGHT territory) that proffers an appealing side to the vampire movie, exchanging thoughtful insight instead of spectacle and carnage. Filmed in St Louis with local talent, the filmmakers tried to make a PG vampire movie that would be suitable for families (that opening staking scene evidently earned them their R-rating), and focuses on character interaction while telling an interesting story largely from the vampire lady's perspective. In the lead role, actress Caitlin McIntosh, who is strikingly beautiful to the point of distraction, plays Laura with expressiveness and sympathy. The other cast members are adequate if indistinctive. The film's low budget is wisely used to its best advantage by director Wyatt Weed in his first feature-length movie; production quality is quite good with limited use of very good CGI to render some of the environments (such as flashbacks to yesteryear) and to make vampire movements ultra-fast; props must go to young makeup artist Rachel Rieckenberg who does an amazing job with limited means to create convincing and creatures, wounds, and the like. Patrick Savage and Holeg Spies (having together scored THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE (FIRST SEQUENCE) and American MANIAC prior to this) provide a serviceable score that supports the duality of the film's heroine as both innocent victim and unwilling monster.

• I'm a few years late to the party but it was an enjoyable, unique, movie.

  nospam-25-3749772017-02-11

  *****Note: No Significant Spoilers. Safe to Read. "Spoilers" Claimed for CYA reasons***** I just wrote a nice, detailed review. However one of IMDb's MANY algorithms decided to dump it in its entirety as I used a repeated word to denote the end of a paragraph or maybe it just timed out. In any case I'm tired but I'll give it another shot. I won't waste words on the thick folks who, lacking sex, non-stop violence and gore in this movie, didn't "get" it and rated it poorly. There were also POSSIBLE shill reviews I found a bit too praise-heavy and dropping names like the gut remains of food poisoning. Generally, I will slam a film that contains shill reviews as they are insultingly stupid and obvious attempts to generate revenue by lying about a film so people will buy it, carrying home a real stinker to their unsuspecting family. It's FRAUD!!!! But in this ONE case, said shill BS will be ignored. Without a doubt this film had a low, low, budget. But what they accomplished with those pennies was impressive. Apparently, a good director/producer/editor can do a lot with very little! Though I have to say this film could have been a first class indie with a few more bucks. It is still very a worthwhile. This movie was unique, interesting and refreshing. The characterization was, overall, quite good. I like the lead character and cared about what happened to her. She was a convincing actress and played her character well. I didn't care for the lead male but that was obviously intended as his acting was mostly good. The lead male vampire did little acting and what he did do didn't appear up to snuff. That noted, I may have been excessively distracted by his ill-fitting suit, awful, fake and bizarrely waxed mustache and precariously perched, a too large for his smallish head, immense top-hat which looked about to flop or drop to his narrow shoulders! The poor fellow never had a chance. Hardly the tall, dark and handsome, rakish playboy he was purported to be! The actors/actresses with small roles varied from believable and good to unbelievable and bad. The owner of the diner with a largish minor role was quite good, likable and believable. The prime wino gets an honorable mention. Overall, the actors playing the police were pretty bad. They were stiff and sounded as though they were reading their lines from cue cards. The story was engrossing. The plot, while not brand new, has not been done excessively and this film gave it an unexpected twist. The female lead vampire was strangely convincing despite the odd (by then vampire standards) and notably different than expected, quirky parallel of the film's distinctiveness. Overall, the movie had quite decent production values for such a tiny budget. Photography was professional with well-framed action, close-ups and environs. Sound was clear and consistent with no background music covering the actor's dialogue. Which I admit infuriates me and will cause me to slam a picture. With today's technology, there is NO excuse for blaring background music, sound levels precariously dropping then shooting up, hurting ears and damaging speakers! Audio should be heard and not seen. Seeing my wife constantly adjusting the sound controls is a death knell for a movie! Happily, not the case here! This will not be the "movie of the year". Nonetheless, it drew me in and kept me interested and entertained. It had nice visuals like the contrast between the pastoral green and wooded rolling hills surrounding the restored red brick and painted wood old town. An unusual setting for a vampire movie which again added to the distinctive story. Watch this keeping in mind: it's extremely modest budget, the newness of the cast and production team, an apparent first or at least very early film for the director: and you will be pleasantly surprised. Other View

• All Eyes on Caitlin

  bobjohnson9942013-03-29

  I give this a solid 4 out of 10, without any curve adjustment for being independent, so that is not a bad score. I agree with one commenter that it is almost like watching a lost soul who is an addict, wandering around, looking for purpose. Also, I think if women thought they could get biceps like Caitlin, they would volunteer for vampirism!! What is going out in the day compared to having guns like that to show off? I also think Caitlin pulled off the contrast between her feisty, pre-vampiric self, and her broken, insecure post vampire self. She is a good actress in that regard. I fault the writing a bit. Some of the tension between the Hero and the black pastor was too contrived, they could have handled that differently. Still, an enjoyable watch, glad I rented it. I hope she does more work in the future. Caitlin! Flex for us! :)

• An unusual vampire movie...

  paul_haakonsen2012-10-28

  Well I found "Shadowland" to be a rather enjoyable movie on one hand, but on the other hand there was just something crucial missing from it to make it great. The storyline was good enough, although you don't really get any chance or any real deep insight as to whom the characters are, and they come off as rather soulless, shallow characters, which is a shame. The story does, however, delve a bit into the background of Laura (played by Caitlin McIntosh), but it is nowhere near any point as being where it really establishes any real depth to her character. And as for the mysterious hunter Julian (played by Jason Contini), then we are given even less insight to his story and background. So for some odd reason, the movie is basically about an hour and forty minutes of watching a vampire lady trying to track back to her familiar places in the time where she was from, while a hunter is trying to track her down. This is basically the essential core of the movie and the entire feature concept. Sort of lacking depth and levels in which the audience can get immersed. The acting was actually good enough for a movie of this budget. And I personally do think that the people hired for the various roles were doing quite alright, and was at no point amateurish and pathetic at acting as you tend to experience in movies of this kind. So thumbs up on that aspect at least. "Shadowland" doesn't make use of a lot of special effects, nor does it make a lot of use of CGI. The little that was used was used in moderation and worked out well enough to illustrate the points trying to be achieved. However, there was one thing that was really sort of anti-climatic; it was when Laura was screaming in the church and the windows had to be blown out. It looked like a small rock was just randomly tossed through the windows, taking out a small fragment of the glass only. It was hilarious, and it didn't work out on any level at all. Oddly enough, there is just something about "Shadowland" that makes you keep watching right up to the very end. There is some kind of strange lure to the movie, despite it not really having much aspect or depth. So the director did do something right after all. For a vampire movie, then "Shadowland" was somewhat of a rather tame experience. And personally, I didn't fully grasp the idea of having an extra set of fangs, and especially not have them placed where they were. It made the vampire look sort of retarded in a way. Kind of hard to take it serious when the mouth was widened by an extra set of fangs, and it would cause them to speak with an impediment. "Shadowland" is a movie that doesn't offer much on most levels, but strangely enough manages to keep you lured in for the entire length of the feature. And because of this, I have to settle on giving "Shadowland" a 5/10 rating.