Solstice (2008) (V)

Director:

Daniel Myrick

Writers:

Daniel Myrick (written by) &
Martin Musatov (written by) ...

Release Date:

1 January 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Thriller

Plot:

A young girl uncovers a disturbing secret about her twin sister, who committed suicide just a few months before.

Plot Keywords:

Suicide | Twin Sister | Solstice | Friend | Lake

Cast

Elisabeth Harnois	...	Megan / Sophie
Shawn Ashmore	...	Christian
Hilarie Burton	...	Alicia
Amanda Seyfried	...	Zoe
Tyler Hoechlin	...	Nick
Matt O'Leary	...	Mark
R. Lee Ermey	...	Leonard
Lisa Arnold	...	Mrs. Thomas
Lyle Brocato	...	Partier
David Dahlgren	...	Mr. Thomas
Jenna Hildebrand	...	Malin (as Jenna Lynn Hildebrand)
Mark Krasnoff	...	Cop
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Michael Sabulsky	...	Evil Brother

Also Known As:

I pyli ton nekron (Greece) [el]
Miedo al amanecer (Argentina) [es]
Solstice (Italy) (DVD title) [it]

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violent content, disturbing images, language, teen drinking and some thematic material.

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

USA:PG-13 | Portugal:M/16 | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | Germany:18 | South Korea:15 | Italy:T | Netherlands:12 | Australia:M | Finland:K-18 | Argentina:13 | Singapore:M18 (DVD rating) | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Husser, Louisiana, USA

Company:

Endgame Entertainment

Trivia:

One of the first films to be produced in and around New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.

Movie Connections:

References "I Love the '80s" (2002)

Soundtrack:

A Lot Like You

Just another teen chiller

Before I start, I'd like to make it clear that I didn't hate this movie, but I hated the enormous amount of annoying clichés. To be fair, this is by some means understandable, considering that we're talking about the classic horror formula for the young audiences that involves a group of young friends taking a trip to the middle of nowhere. Personally, I have nothing against these types of films, but in this case, my problem is that even though I can tolerate typical clichés, a movie should always offer something particularly good to praise. Unfortunately, this is not the case. 'Solstice' is your average teenage flick, with nothing good enough to remain in our memory. It's a plain horror flick that I'm already forgetting, even though I saw it less than 24 hours ago.

The story is about a troubled young girl named Megan, whose sister Sofie committed suicide for unknown reasons. Troubled and fragile as she is, Megan still thinks it would be a great idea to take a trip to her family house to celebrate the summer solstice. Her moronic friends are invited, of course, including her sister's ex boyfriend (who by the way, has a crush on her). As soon as they arrive, Megan begins to have some horrible visions and also sees a dark figure (a spirit) lurking around the house, which she believes is Sofie. In the meantime, her friends try to convince her that she's just having a hard time dealing with the situation, but the poor girl still goes out of her way to find out if her dead sister is actually trying to tell her something. Great news for Megan!: apparently, the summer solstice is supposed to be the most convenient time of year to communicate with the dead... so guess what? Exactly. All the stupid teenagers, reluctantly set up a circle to have a nice conversation with dead Sofie. Because you know what the say: it's not a kick-ass trip until you invoke a spirit from the beyond.

Basically, the story has been done many times before, but there are some variations, of course. Personally, I don't mind that. I firmly believe that you can make a great horror movie with a worn out plot, if you create the right atmosphere, with the right characters and at least ONE memorable thing. Unfortunately, this is not the case and like I said before, the problem with this film, is the amount of repetitive situations that only produce a strong desire to fast forward. Example? all right: the typical situations of "Oh my god! I packed this a while ago!, how come it's here again! spirits from the beyond are messing with the things I packed!! (yawn) And you know what's the best part? all right, in many horror movies, the main character is haunted by a specific object that belonged to someone who died. Example: In 'The Changeling' George Scott always sees a small rubber ball that belonged to his late daughter. Well, in 'Solstice', Megan is haunted by... a bear keyring! yes, ladies and gentlemen, that's right, a bear keyring! I could never really get over the image of the ridiculous little bear in what was supposed to be freaky.

"Solstcide" offers a vast quantity of pointless scenes full of scares and ineffective chills that lead to nothing at all. Perhaps they wouldn't be completely pointless if they helped to build an atmosphere of fear and tension, but in this case, it's mostly tedious. The only interesting parts of the movie are the ones that involve the local creepy old man and his background story. As the movie goes, we see a few things about this character, that help to build some intrigue. Then, we have some flashback and premonitory visions that are incredibly artsy and dark, which I appreciated a lot. These morbid visions are a way to tell what happened in the past and unravel little by little the intriguing parts of the story. So basically, these flashbacks are not only nice to look at, but also, pretty much one of the main reasons why this movie got my attention in any way.

The ending is somehow fulfilling and a bit surprising, although not quite enough to redeem the movie entirely. But if I have to be nice and focus on the good aspect of it: the final revelations and the minutes of the film in which the big mysteries are revealed and resolved, were pretty interesting, actually. It has a twist, but not an excessive and far-fetched twist. So my humble advice is: watch the movie if you're in the mood for a teen chiller, but don't expect anything grandiose, because you won't find it in this film. And just because it was directed by one of the guys who directed 'The Blair Witch Project', don't expect anything even remotely comparable, because that will be your worst disappointment.