Whoa! I'm often defending these SyFy original movies but there is just no defending this one. It's an absolutely terrible- but above all things absurd movie!

I don't even know where to begin. The concept is of course already sounding absolutely ludicrous and it isn't exactly turned into something very convincing and realistic by the actual movie. As a matter of fact, the movie gets sillier and sillier with its story as it goes on and keeps coming up with new stuff. So, here we have a movie with a story involving a bunch of strange natural disasters, that occur around Christmas time and marks the end of the world. But have no fear! There is a girl, who apparently is the chosen one and with the help of an old ancient Mayan book and a bunch of random rings they have to find for some reason, is able to stop the end of days.

It's really random how the movie keeps coming up with new things. Even the disasters are all extremely random ones and not even all that fun and awesome to watch, due to some poor computer effects. Well, that's no big surprise of course, seeing how all SyFy movies always have some bottom of the barrel CGI effects in them.

I guess it could have worked, if only the movie had taken a different approach to things. Maybe if the movie would have been more of a fun and adventurous one, all of it potentially still could have worked out. But the movie for some reason feels more like one that's wanting to take a realistic approach to things, which of course isn't working out too well for the movie, since everything that happens in it as absolutely ridicules and far from anything realistic or convincing.

There is also never a sense of true despair and panic, even though it becomes apparent from pretty early on that the end is nigh! But even when certain characters die, no one is really mourning or worrying about anything too much, other than some very trivial stuff. The movie even manages to throw in a villain, who is just evil for the sake of being evil. The actions characters take and behaviors they exhibit are all part of the reason why this is an absolutely terrible and far from convincing and effective movie to watch.

It's also terrible how there isn't a single original thing about this movie. It keeps 'borrowing' heavily from other movies, all throughout. This also means that the movie really isn't ever becoming a very surprising one and it's also indeed being a very predictable movie, from start to finish.

Just not a very good- or even remotely enjoyable movie to watch.

3/10

Well surprise, surprise. It doesn't happen too often that a horror sequel is better than its original, especially not when it has a much lower budget but in this case, I feel and believe that this is a much better movie than its 2010 predecessor.

It's as if director Steven R. Monroe watched the first movie back, which he also had directed and noticed it wasn't as great and effective as it potentially all could have been and he wanted it to be. It's funny, all the things that bothered me about the first movie were 'fixed' in this one.

I'm probably going to be a minority on this again, since people just love to hate on horror sequels no matter what but I really have to be fair and I must admit that as a horror lover, I thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie, though I'm of course not completely crazy and of course can still see that this is a far from perfect one and one that is not without its weaknesses but both as a sequel and standalone movie, it definitely is a good watch.

You can either like the story or not but you have to admit that this movie definitely has more story than its predecessor. It's less simplistic and straightforward, which is all a good thing in this case, since it definitely makes the movie a more interesting and engaging one to watch.

Just like the first movie, it's relying mostly on the violence and torture aspect. It however in this case is working out far better and more effective, in my opinion. The characters all feel better developed and in a sense are more understandable. Besides, all of the torture moments are far less crazy and less elaborate, which makes them far more believable and therefore also more realistic and effective to watch. I'm not going to spoil anything but one moment in particular truly made me cringe.

It in a way still is a very straightforward and minimalistic movie but it manages to feel very raw, dirty and realistic and therefore also very effective, which perhaps also was thanks to its change of venue. Instead of set in the woods, this movie is set in an eastern European city, as well as partly in New York.

This definitely is a good movie for what it is. It also definitely is one of the best efforts I have seen in a long while, within the 'torture porn' sub-genre. Definitely worth checking out, even if you weren't too fond of- or impressed with the first movie.

7/10

Watch trailer

Yes, I have seen the original movie this one is based on but it was ages ago and I actually remember very little about it. For some reason I also always mix it up with the 1972 Wes Craven movie "The Last House on the Left". I therefore also can't tell you how the two of them compare to each other but I can only assume that the original did a far better job with its concept and was a better and more effective movie, since I actually quite liked it, which I can't really say for this movie.

The truth is that older genre movies were always capable of getting away with far more stuff than any of the more recent genre movies. It was OK for older sorts of genre movies to be very simplistic and straightforward ones, as long as they were doing something special, which either could be something totally outrageous and crazy, gore, violence or sex-wise or something so stupid that it would actually work out as something entertaining and original to watch. Nowaways, people are not only more demanding but it's also really hard to stand out. Pretty much everything has been done in movies already, so how are you going to stand out with anything, nowadays? Well. this movie was clearly struggling with this as well and it in fact also stands out in absolutely no way at all!

That was the thing about the original 1978 version; It had a, at the time, greatly original concept, in which things got turned around and the victim became the tough, coldblooded, killer. Plus added to that; it was a woman! In a way it was a real female empowering movie. Can the same be said about this movie as well? Well, not really. It's just nothing more but another average 'torture porn' horror flick. That the characters who's inflicting most of the pain and causing the most death and destructing is a female, who's on a revenge streak, doesn't add all that much in this case and I believe there are multiple reasons for this.

One is the main lead itself, played by Sarah Butler. Now, I'm not saying she is a terrible actress but her character is a far too poorly developed one. It's hard to get behind her because of this and thing that also incredibly annoyed me was the fact that she was always wearing perfect looking makeup and had wonderful, clean looking, hair, even in the scenes she was supposed to look dirty and beaten. Things like this always distract me and take me out of a movie.

Another thing is that here you have a movie, in which the interesting- and standout moments should be the torture/gory scenes. Seriously, other than that the story has absolutely nothing to offer. It's a very simplistic, straightforward movie that's relying heavily on all of the gore and violence. Now, here's the problem with it; the gore and violence really isn't anything all that special or graphic to watch. A lot gets implied but very little is actually shown. So now that is taken away from this movie, what is left in it? Just some very average, run of the mill, type of genre stuff. The movie constantly tries very hard to shock you but it never really hits. Instead of feeling raw and realistic, things in this movie feel far too polished, making the gore and violence appear more tame and less effective as well.

Now, to be fair; as far as these type of movies go, this really isn't the worst one you could watch. It remains good looking, never gets boring and never gets offensively bad with anything. It's perfectly watchable actually, though you obviously are still far better off watching the 1978 original, that's also known under the title "Day of the Woman", that was doing far more interesting and effective things with its concept.

6/10

Watch trailer

Katie is trying to make it in the cutthroat world of modeling. When she innocently accepts an offer to have new photos taken for her portfolio, the experience quickly turns into an unthinkable nightmare of rape, torture, and kidnapping. When a twist of fate finally frees her from her captors - beaten, battered, bruised, and broken, she will have to tap into the darkest places of the human psyche to not only survive her ordeal, but to ultimately find the strength to exact her brutal revenge. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: Steven R. Monroe

Starring: Jemma Dallender, Joe Absolom, Yavor Baharov and others

Current release date: September 20, 2013

Katie is trying to make it in the cutthroat world of modeling. When she innocently accepts an offer to have new photos taken for her portfolio, the experience quickly turns into an unthinkable nightmare of rape, torture, and kidnapping. When a twist of fate finally frees her from her captors - beaten, battered, bruised, and broken, she will have to tap into the darkest places of the human psyche to not only survive her ordeal, but to ultimately find the strength to exact her brutal revenge. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: Steven R. Monroe

Starring: Jemma Dallender, Joe Absolom, Yavor Baharov and others

Current release date: September 24, 2013

Directed by: Steven R. Monroe

Starring: Jemma Dallender, Joe Absolom, Yavor Baharov and others

Current release date: 2013