Review: Temple

(imdb.com)

2017 has been a strong year for indie horror films. From The Devil's Candy to A Dark Song, this year has had plenty of gems that have been successful despite limited theater runs. These movies, which have come out in quick succession this year, have just as quickly become genre favorites. The newly released film, Temple, attempts to join this list with varying success.

From the writer behind films like Blair Witch and You're Next, Simon Barrett, and cinematographer and newly anointed director, Michael Barrett (Ted), Temple follows a group of three friends who travel to a temple deep in the Japanese countryside. There, they get more than they bargain for and everything that makes horror scary breaks loose. One of the film's more impressive feats is in its brooding scenery. Stylistically, Temple is pretty fantastic. Dark and luring, the scenes of the film are engrossing and pleasing to the eyes.


The movie stars Logan Huffman (Final Girl), Brandon Sklenar (Hunky Dory) and Natalia Warner (Learning to Breathe) as the trio of American tourists, Kate's childhood friend, Chris, and couple, James and Kate, respectively. Huffman is most noteworthy and excels as the gentlest of the three. His character is a loner and he plays it well, while also conveying a sense of normalcy. Sklenar's role is confusing given his simultaneous hatred for Chris and care for him and Kate after trouble strikes. Warner is fine, but her character is background noise in comparison to the mass of other ongoing events 


Temple does a lot to mess up its conventional but effective premise. Whether it's the interjecting found-footage that does the film a grave disservice and detracts from the otherwise fine camerawork or the sacrifice of horror for melodrama between the characters, this movie busts at the seams to the point of disrepair. Even the entities that haunt our protagonists come out of the shadows in such excess that none make a large enough impact to be horrific. There's a shape-shifting demon, dead monks and some ghoulish children, but also the possibility of a character's mental capacity playing the villain in Temple and none are given much follow through. The movie is additionally sluggish; taking much of the run time gearing up, just to unfold rapidly and ends minutes later.

Overall, Temple is like the misshapen vegetable on a pile of fine looking ones. You may accidentally grab it and you may- after avoiding it - eventually eat it, but the entire time you're questioning whether or not you should. It sacrifices far too many tense moments in exchange for romance, falls too often into ruts of bland complacency and by its wrap, many will have already tuned out. Even if it’s beautifully shot, the filmmakers are all too keen on marring its quality with shaky, unnecessary camera footage. Temple isn't offensively bad, but it's certainly not something worth spending much time on. 4 out of 10.