Don't Believe the Hype

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Sarah (played by Niamh Algar) and Mark (played by Stephen Cromwell) are on a trip through the Irish countryside when their car gets stuck in some mud. In an attempt to locate some nearby help, Mark stumbles upon a man who is in desperate need of some help and thus seals their fate as prey to a nocturnal beast.It is, of course, not the most original of stories, but it didn't need much. I found the main characters to be pretty instantly likable, though there wasn't much done to develop a real bond between them — there's actually some tension introduced as Mark lists the reasons why he would probably never get married (which Sarah is obviously yearning for). But, again, I don't think their romantic connection was crucial to this story, which was more focused on bare bones suspense and mystery.We know from the first scene that this is obviously some kind of vampiric creature — the old farmer removes the stake after he stumbles upon the body while digging, and it avoids light at all costs — and man, I really felt like they nailed the creepiness of it. It stays in the shadows for a majority of the movie. We see a few glimpses here and there (and even in the light it's pretty awesome looking), but the real fear comes from its otherworldly skulking in the dark, drawing some obvious inspiration from Nosferatu. It is clearly a powerful, quick creature and yet it spends much of its time gliding around as if its feet don't even touch the ground. There's a few scenes in particular — its hand reaching for Sarah in the glow of her lighting a cigarette, the scene pictured above when it is seen fully in shadow out one of the windows of the house, seeing its shadowy figure on the bank after Mark falls in the water — that deliver some deep chills.Unfortunately the director, Conor McMahon, seemed to be stuck on the quiet, understated scares — there were a few moments that I felt should have delivered much more impact and surprise (the very first moments of the vampire breaking into the house, Mark shattering the lights on the tractor, Sarah ultimately sacrificing Mark for her own safety) that just fell flat.I did appreciate the strong female lead in Sarah. She carries a majority of the film and she's tenacious and bold.I felt like it plateaued for a while there in the middle — we got stuck in this repetitive cycle of "find light, scare off vampire, repeat" — but we're brought back in to the action right around the time when Sarah is forced to chop off her own finger after getting a nasty bite. But the ending, man… both the surprise and then the bit of mystery in the last second are really fantastic. An understated and yet truly creepy and intelligent film.

Like they say in journalism: this is a non-story. There was nothing here; nothing original, nothing special, nothing scary, nothing worth watching.When Sarah (Niamh Algar) and Mark (Stephen Cromwell) escape to the Irish countryside for some alone time they find themselves stuck on an isolated property hiding from some creature. The movie makers tried to drum up some fear and suspense but it fell flat. How can I even be expected to fear a creature that spends most of its time unnecessarily stalking its victim? I know that was done for added fright, but it only made the creature more baffling as it could only hunt during the night so time was precious. This creature timidly slinked around in order to give us a 90 minute movie as the heroine fought it off with flashlights, cell phone light and matches. There were definitely several points in the movie when I wondered what's the plan. Not just the plan of the protagonist but also the plan of the creature. Both of them seemed aimless. What I watched was a choreographed hunt where they both strategically harmed each other a bit until one of them delivered the kill shot. Like I said, there's nothing to see here folks.

I see a lot of horror movies. That one is maybe a low budget, but in my opinion very tense and scary. Camera angles, moving figures on the background, really good acting (considering horror genre and no special effects low budget piece) all this made surprisingly good and tense movie. And i loved those Vurdalaks that you can only see their shape in the night. Usually when they show you the whole monster it looks sucks and ruins the whole movie. And i like the last seconds - that makes you wander what happens next and upgrades the experience from the movie to the next level. Like it. If you are disappointed with this you should check some "Pyramid" or stuff of that kind - full of effects with ridiculous story and idiotic acting. You will understand what i mean.

I couldn't make it past the 20 minute mark. The boyfriend literally ruins this movie entirely. He manages to fulfill every tired boring horror movie cliché in less than 15 minutes. So bad in fact that I was hoping he would die before I even saw this stupid leprechaun or whatever the hell it was supposed to be. I've referenced IMDb for years, and I've never been motivated to write a review , but this pile managed to evoke such disgust and anger in me that I was left no choice. Holy sh** what a load of crap this movie is. Who read this and said "yea this seems great, here's money so you can make it a reality." Shoot everyone involved in my opinion, nothing could save this movie not even a Warwick cameo. Crap piled on crap with a side dish of crap and more crap for dessert....... Crap.