[Credo]
Plot:Centers on a group of theological students who decide to test their faith by proving the existence of Hell. Following their ritualistic summoning of a demon, the students all wind up dead via suicide. Ten years later a group of students kicked out of their campus digs, decide to spend the weekend inside the residence where the aforementioned incident occured. Soon they realize however, that they are not alone.

Cast:Myanna Burning, Clayton Watson, Stephen Gately.

My Thoughts:Smoke and Mirrors.

Review:"Credo" is the latest attempt to make occult horror work again. Not that it was ever in any real danger of falling off the face of the planet, but there have been some sad, pathetic attempts at it as of late. "Credo" follows a group of teens who get kicked out of their dorm, and have to find a new place to live. One of their fellow students manages to find them a place for the next few weeks, but of course there's an issue.

The issue being that the previous tenant of the place was a student obsessed with the occult. So obsessed, that he gathered some friends together long ago to perform a satanic ritual to summon a demon. One of them wussed out though, and broke the circle, right in the middle of the ceremony. By that time, it was too late, the demon had been summoned, and slaughtered the students friends using the occult-obsessed student as it's conveyance to do so.

The kids find this out eventually, but being that it's a horror movie, they pay it no mind, and decide to stay there anyways. Because after all, sleeping inside a building where a ritual has unleashed a deadly demon, is a lot more "chic" than sleeping aon a park bench...."sigh". No need to guess where the film goes from here. Kids get dead, the lead girl (Mayanna Buring) figures out what's going on, but by the time she decides she wants out, it's already too late.

Oh, and did I mention the loopy, obligatory grizzled-looking hermit living in the buildingsbasement, who delivers a stern warning to the teens to leave? Yes, this movie is stupid, and yes this movie doesn't have a single soldier in the "original horror" brigade, but it works on a certain level with it's high creep factor. The films setting is very claustrophobic, and very eerie with it's dark spaces and pitch black crevices. But that's about as good as it gets.

The movies script is incredibly weak, and the character development is thinner than a runway supermodel. These teens are obnoxious, cliche, and just all around annoying. Not to mention when the killing starts, because of their personas, you can't muster any desire to root for them, cheer for them, or hope they live. Quite honestly, I felt if all of these kids bit it then it wouldn't have really made a difference to me. Speaking of the deaths, this movie hardly has any.

Most of the victims turn up dead, instead of being seen being killed on screen, and the others just mysteriously vanish for awhile. The demon is nothing to write home about either. It lets out a few evil growls just to let the kids know it's "around", and it uses the standard demon tricks like mimicking peoples relatives, mimicking voices to lure people into danger, etc. I've never seen a horror film with a boring demon until now.

I always say, movies looking to create a good movie villain with a demon, need to watch "Night Of The Demons" to get some pointers. Angela was and still is the best horror movie demon to ever grace the screen....period. Myanna Buring (The Descent), is given this movie to carry, but it just doesn't work due to her character. She's a whiny girl sometimes, and a super-bitch at other times. I think she's a talented actress, but really needs to choose better characters.

Her character in this film was not really fit for her, and watching her try and play this character was like watching a group of first graders intellectually try to keep up with a child-prodigy. The film tries to make up for a lack of effort, and real scares at the conclusion, where it throws in one of those question mark endings, where all is not what it seems and all you thought you knew you apparently didn't know.

I knew one thing though, this movie didn't make the grade. And it's ending was a cop out which was supposed to be part of a plan to give the viewer something to dicuss on the way home, because the writers knew the rest of the movie didn't measure up in the least. "Credo" had a shot at being a terrifying supernatural horror effort. Instead, it wound up being a dry, lackadasical, monotone, and droll 90 minute waste.

Positives:Claustrophobic, dark, moody setting. A good idea for a story.

Negatives:The story idea was poorly executed, hardly any deaths, the deaths that did occur had zero impact, the demon was lame, and the ending was a bad attempt at controversy.

Overall:One star out of four.





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