Ogre

Icon Entertainment

R4 DVD

Ogre is an interesting dark fantasy tale which is reminiscent of the old midnight monster movies. It has a quirky plot, a great monster and lots of cheesy special effects.

The story focuses on the town of Elmsford which is caught in a time warp. While we are living in the modern world, Elmsford is locked in a pact with an Ogre which keeps it suspended in the past. 250 years ago the township’s warlock made a deal with dark forces to stop the effects of a deadly plague. To do so all the diseases of the town were transformed into a malevolent beast: the ogre. To sustain the pact the people of the township become immortal, cannot reproduce and are required to sacrifice one villager a year to keep the Ogre fed. The ritual sacrifice is completed at winter each year and is under the control of the warlock who is also the town magistrate. The townspeople’s are being to notice that the chosen sacrifice is always someone who has questioned the magistrates authority and there is growing discontent.

Rumors of this “town out of time” circulate via the internet and a group of teens decide to go on an expedition to find it. Inevitably one of them commits the faux pas of unlocking the Ogres pentagram secured tomb and all hell breaks loose. Two of the youngsters are killed by the Ogre and the others are captured by the township.

The townships discontent turns to open rebellion when one of the outsiders is chosen to be the sacrifice. When the warlock’s daughter steals his spellbook, she finds that her father created the disease as part of a power struggle to become mayor. When it got out of control and infected her he manipulated the townspeople into the pact with the Ogre. Now his daughter wants to reverse the pact that created the Ogre and set the town’s people free, at whatever cost to herself.

This is superb midnight monster entertainment. The ogre is just so utterly over the top - a huge, lumbering CGI creature of outrageous appearance, that he takes centre stage throughout the whole film. Ogre has received some bad reviews but I think this is because too many reviewers have interpreted this as a horror film rather than the dark fantasy that it is intended to be. Ogre is really a scary fairy tale for adults, a medieval legend set in the woods with a monster, scared locals, a warlock and a spellbook. When you watch Ogre from this perspective it becomes great fun. The way in which it intertwines what is essentially an old world fantasy with a modern story of teens lost in the woods is rather inventive. While the acting, especially by the modern teens is a bit wooden, overall it is a very successful and interesting dark fantasy film.

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This review will appear in Volume 2 No.4 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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