Description

The team behind the beloved JACK BROOKS: MONSTER SLAYER are back… with a decidedly darker and infinitely freakier piece of work: THE SHRINE. A small group of American journalists embarks to a remote Polish village in search of (the likely remains of) a U.S. backpacker who vanished off the face of the Earth. His disappearance has been linked to the distant village in question, and the journalists arrive hoping to find answers. Answers they will get, and it’s not going to be pretty. Because the shadowy village of Alwaina is a place of very old, very terrible secrets, and of even worse cultural traditions. It begins when the reporters uncover a pagan-looking shrine surrounded by a mysterious fog that hangs frozen in the air, unmoving and deathly. This rouses the already somewhat hostile locals fully against them. Things take an even more sinister turn towards the demonic, pitting our heroes against inconceivable, unforgiving terrors that begin to emerge throughout the village.

The cruelty of religion and the horrors of the supernatural combine to ignite a powder keg of punishment in this harrowing nail-biter from maverick Canadian filmmaker Jon Knautz. Turning completely away from the comedy-horror sensibilities that made his previous film an international cult hit, Knautz regroups with his JACK BROOKS team of actor/co-writer/co-producer Trevor Matthews, producer J. Michael Dawson and editor Matt Brulotte to craft a diabolically effective, dead-serious shocker that affirms him and his pack as a major new force in genre cinema. Simply put, THE SHRINE is chilling, surprising stuff, dripping with atmosphere, beasts and blood while maintaining a compellingly character-driven anchor through its chaos. This is clearly the work of lifelong horror fans—savvy viewers will sense the influence of such older greats as BLACK SUNDAY, NIGHT OF THE DEMON and HORROR HOTEL—and the passion behind the lens translates firmly onto the screen as Jon Knautz and his crew clearly strive to bring something horribly special to the Canadian genre cinema landscape. THE SHRINE plays shrewdly against expectations to deliver stupendously ghoulish thrills, and you, dear Fantasia fiends, will be the first audience in the world blessed to experience it.

—Mitch Davis