I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Absolutely Fantastic

A Major Disappointment

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This Bulgarian horror boasts that its story is based on a 'real unsolved crime'. Whether or not that is true, it is a triumph of atmospherics and unease. Set mainly in 1985, Newly-weds Vassil and Nadya (Kalin Vrachanski and Lydia Indjova) are sharing the Roseville mountain resort with George and Dora (Plaman Manasiev and Elena Petrova). They provide each other with pleasant, well-meaning company that instantly becomes strained and awkward once wayward American photographer Steven (David Chokachi) arrives. Unpredictable, verbally aggressive and confrontational, hugely arrogant and something of a sex-pest, he also seems to have some secret vendetta against them all.Big strong Vassil is the first to become unnerved by events, and changed too, from a loving new husband to boorish and clearly troubled. Equally, the relationship between George and Dora constantly and subtly confounds our expectations. Little is explicit, and as is the way of things, little is as it seems.Director and co-writer Martin Makariev really does a great job with this. Although watching 'normal' people slowly become 'subnormal' because of an outside influence has been done before, this is all accomplished with great style, in beautiful but humbling surroundings and conveyed by a great cast playing believable characters. At nearly two hours, this might have benefitted from some pruning, and the ending might have been a little more comprehensive ... but like many films, the destination doesn't matter so much when the journey is so enjoyable. Whilst primarily a subtitled film, there are also scenes (mainly those involving Steven) spoken in English.

First of all, I'm not exactly sure why I'm not giving this 10 stars, but I'm just not. I am not a film maker or a journalist. Just a huge horror movie fan who has seen A LOT of movies. I watch horror movies because I want to feel all those typical horror movie feelings. Heart racing, closing your eyes and peeking through your fingertips, can't get to sleep, stare at the screen and yell, "No!!!!". This movie gave me ALL of that. I usually don't watch foreign horror because I can't be still long and often enough to watch subtitles all the time. But this was one, is a mix of English and Bulgarian and WELL worth it. I might even dip into some Japanese horror now.

Photography in the very beginning takes the watcher to a mountainous region in Bulgaria. It's beautiful, in a scary way - great unsettled mountains and forests makes one feel very small. From the beginning there's a bit similar feeling like in The Shining. Isolation, a small group of people, and something hauntingly wrong in the location. While many horror films takes place in an isolated location, they rarely deliver the feeling as well as in Vila Roza. You can tell the director has a vision how to make a horror story interesting. The film avoids many clichés, especially the one I really hate (which is when they go to library to read a Gothic book about demons or sorcery etc). There are some clichés, but director seems to make a good use of them.All and all it's definitely one of the best horror flicks I've seen in a while and I recommend this to any horror movie fan.

Despite having its flaws, Vila Roza is among the few modern Bulgarian movies that I can really recommend. It uses some clichés from the horror genre, but the actors perform well and for me it did not feel fake. In my opinion the Bulgarian actors play their parts better than their foreign colleagues and their inclusion seems a bit unneeded at times. The fact that it is based on real case and evidence is intriguing, especially when they add the footage from the actual investigation. To sum it up, this is a movie that kept me interested in the plot, offered intense moments and generally made me wonder why are most of the contemporary Bulgarian movies usually lacking a lot of its positive features.