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Review: Pernicious

11169927_895165320522962_7054583628016626_nAnother film from Mr. Bressack, who is honestly becoming one of the best directors in the horror game…

Pernicious is written and directed by James Cullen Bressack with Taryn Hillin. The film features cinematography from Seo Mutarevic and stars Ciara Hanna (Blood Lake, “Power Rangers”), Emily O’Brien (Project Bigfoot, “Young and the Restless”), Jackie Moore (Army of the Damned, “Blackjacks”), Russell Geoffrey Bans, Byron Gibson, Jack Prinya, Sohanne Bengana, Jared Cohn and Irada Hoyos.

“Three young, beautiful girls arrive in Thailand to teach English for the summer, some with noble intentions and some just wanting an adventure, but none were prepared for the massacre that awaited them. The nightmare begins when their new friends go missing, vivid bloody dreams haunt their sleep and a stolen statue leads them down a dark path into Thai folklore and magic that has been long forgotten. Their situation continues to become worse once they realize it’s not WHAT is haunting them but WHO.”

I have to say that Pernicious absolutely delivers everything that you’d want from a horror film. Personable characters to root for, an original villain, lots of blood and a beautiful, foreign setting. Even from an emotional standpoint the film had a couple gut punches, moments of dread and scenes that made me want to yell at the screen. My viewing of Pernicious was gratifying to both kinds of senses: visually stunning and a piece that brought you along for a wild ride of emotions. I think this is the most lively film I’ve seen from Bressack and I think he shows here that he has so much more potential than he lets on. If you ever want to rent his movies, Pernicious should be the one you start with!

From a production standpoint, I can’t find a single aspect to criticize…except for a special effect that I think malfunctioned during the shoot and they had to work with what they had left over. I’m blown away by what was accomplished with – what I assume to be – a lower budgeted movie. I mean, did Pernicious go to theaters? Select theaters? Anything? I wholeheartedly think this title is good enough to have been in theaters during its earlier days of release. Having had a chance to view it myself now, I can 100% back this movie and tell people to buy it on DVD. It’s well worth the price of purchase for its great actresses, awesome cinematography and for introducing a Grudge-like villain.

It has many twists and turns, too! I can’t forget to mention that. These twists and turns are unexpected and fall outside of the traditional horror film stereotypes and molds and are guaranteed to keep you interested the whole way through. A really great movie here. It had its teeny, PG13 moments, but overall a solid flick with a broad range of appeal. Now, let’s all go to Thailand… I hear they have beautiful golden statues. What’s the worst that could happen?

Final Score: 8 out of 10

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Michael DeFellipo

(Senior Editor)

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