Shadow (2009)

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Excellent, a Must See

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

I certainly don't intend to say that "Shadow" is a bad film, and I don't even want to discourage anyone from watching it; the only thing that is simply undeniable is that it contributes almost nothing to the horror genre. The story, written by director Frederico Zampaglione , shamelessly cashes in on the biggest and most profitable horror trends of the new millennium, namely vicious torture porn situations (eerie devices in dark and sinister cellars) and silent & nameless creeps that mercilessly ambush ignorant tourists to feast their perverted torture fetishes upon. During "Shadow", I spotted elements and ideas that were previously used in films such as "Saw", "Hostel", "Frontière(s)", "Blood Trails", "Timber Falls" and possibly a few other titles I already forgot about. Relieved that he's finally back from serving in the Iraq war, avid bike rider David goes on an adventurous trip that was recommended to him by a friend. The area, known as "The Shadow", is breath-taking and David even meets the girl of his dream. She's a French beauty called Angelique and she's also obsessed with bike riding; what are the odds on that? Their freshly found happiness rudely gets interrupted when they run into a couple of redneck hunters and are forced to abandon their bikes to hide into the thick woods. Little does David know that this only the beginning of the nightmare, as the Shadow also homes a cruel and psychopathic creep who likes to torture people. The thing that surprised (or is it annoyed?) me the most is the severe lack of sick and nasty violence depicted on screen. All the shocking stuff, as well as most of the killings, occurs off-screen, which is quite unusual for a torture porn flick. The movie does manage to be reasonably suspenseful, especially because David and Angelique are nice and amiable persons, whereas the hunters are loathsome bastards, so during the cat-and- mouse games you automatically cheer for the biker couple. Experienced horror fans can also entertain themselves by spotting all the clichés, for example the soldier flashbacks or the "decorations" inside the maniac's lair. The whole ending is sort of like a mixed bag. I certainly admire Zampaglione's courage and ambition to try something completely different, but the result is principally unsatisfying and leaves quite a lot of questions unanswered. At least you cannot claim that the climax is obvious or even remotely predictable, so that's already an accomplishment on itself. Still, considering we're already in familiar terrain, I personally would have preferred more gore and bloodshed rather than a surreal twist- ending.

I was sort of iffy about watching this due to the rating and such and I try not to watch trailers or read reviews so I don't get my hopes up but decided to watch the trailer and was surprised. The beginning of the movie is slow but is done excellently. The story line was a great idea and was also done great. The kill scenes were not gory or gruesome but I let it slide. I for once didn't expect the ending or the killer in a foreign horror movie and was glad I didn't. To cut it short this was a great way to spend some time and I would love to watch it again. I give "Shadow" an 8 out of 10.~Joe

I found this movie surprisingly amazing! It was a total fluke that we watched this as we settled in to watch a movie way too late and wanted to pick one quickly. To our luck we ended up picking this one based on the cover (Netflix).Two people alone in the woods anger two crazy hillbillies. Sounds like your typical slasher film right? Half way through the movie they add a little bit of a twist and add some ghosts stalking everyone in the woods. Sounds like a ghost movie now? Well now add in some crazy looking guy that could be the long lost Uncle of the monsters from the movie "The Descent" who is obsessed with the holocaust and Dr. Mengele's human experiments. What do you have now? With all mentioned above it may sound confusing but it isn't when at the end the Directors message packs a hard punch with an incredible twist.I love when I watched a movie expecting nothing too special and end up watching a great flick like this one. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time in this film, wonderfully made horror film, the type of perfect horror movie that sucks you in.ZombieSteak.com - Discover a new world of horror films, designed just for you.

Watched it last night and just loved it. Shadow it's a little independent film but very well made and truly suspenseful. All the actors do a great job and Nuot Arquint , the guy who plays Mortis is just amazing. The flick starts like a survivor horror , then turns unto a creepy and bloody story, but in a very natural and powerful way.The director is a famous rock star in his own country and I'm very surprised because he did such a great job. He can be easily seen like sort of Italian Rob ZombieThe shooting is excellent and the music just drives you crazy..on top of this I really liked the mountains, where everything takes place!wow !!! I wish I'll be there anytime soon.The ending is pretty sad, and tells something about horrors of war, but I can' t say more... don' t like spoiling. But that's a great return for Italy in the horror circus, after a long period of silence and bad moviesZampaglione definitely has a big potential to became one of the new Italian masters of horror !