Saints-Martyrs-Des-Damnés [Saint Martyrs of the Damned] (2005)

(On DVD, September 2007) The good news is that this is a genre picture made in Quebec. It’s a visually gorgeous piece of work, it sports a terrific atmosphere and it’s more or less in the lineage of Silent Hill and other small-town atmospheric horror film. The bad news is that it’s written and directed by someone who doesn’t have a clue about logic, pacing or payoff. The tale gets more and more ludicrous as it rolls along, eventually heading into unconvincing Science Fiction and ignoring a good chunk of everything that came before. Continuity and coherency are obviously not this film’s strong point, and the result starts well but then crashes down. Given the slow rhythm of the film, though, simply getting to the end will be an achievement of sorts. It’s too bad that all of the considerable talent involved in making this picture simply didn’t come together to produce something worthwhile. While the images may make a cool music video, it simply doesn’t hold together as a feature, and the script is the first thing to blame.