The Shrine (film)

The film starts with a man tied to a table. Another man then kills him with a sledgehammer to the face.

Workaholic journalist Carmen and her photographer boyfriend Marcus are having relationship problems since Carmen tends to ignore him in favor of her job. Carmen asks her boss, Dale, to allow her to investigate the disappearances of several tourists in the (fictional) Polish village of Alvainia, including a man named Eric Taylor (who was the killed at the beginning of the film). She also mentions that the luggage of all the missing tourists end up being found all around the rural parts of central Europe. However, Dale isn't interested in another missing persons case, and he does not give her permission to go. Carmen and her intern Sara visit Eric's mother, Laura. Laura tells them that she has tried to get the help of both the Polish and the American Police. However, they are either unwilling or too busy to help her. Carmen asks Laura if Eric's luggage has been returned to her. Laura says that it has and allows Carmen to borrow Eric's journal. Later at home, while reading Eric's journal, she has a dream of Eric with bloody eyes who tells her "Leave me alone". Wanting to mend her relationship with Marcus as well as her job, Carmen urges him to come with her and Sara to Alvainia.

Upon reaching Alvania, they find the village people to be secretive, unfriendly and unwelcoming, just as described in the last entry in Eric's journal. Although English is taught in the village's school, some of the villagers don't know how (or are unwilling) to speak it. They see a man named Henryk butchering a pig, then find a girl named Lidia picking flowers and approach her. They ask the little girl some questions and discover that no one in the village is allowed to leave. Carmen shows her a picture of Eric and ask if she has seen him. The girl reacts to Eric's picture but is hesitant to answer. Henryk suddenly calls to her and sends her off, but not before she warns them to leave. Carmen, Sara and Marcus explore the village and soon notice that the villagers treat their religious leaders like royalty. They then spot a strange dense area of fog which seems to be concentrated only in one portion of the forest, also mentioned in Eric's notes. When they attempt to investigate the fog, they are threatened by Henryk and the villagers and are told to leave. As they leave the village, Carmen urges Marcus to go back and investigate the fog. Marcus disagrees and insists they leave. But Carmen admits to Marcus that Dale knows nothing about the trip and her career will be over if she returns with no story. With Marcus convinced to stay, they leave the car and head into the forest.

They soon find the area with the fog. Carmen, Sara and Marcus note how strange it is that the fog seems to never move and is quite dense, preventing Marcus from taking pictures of anything inside it. Sara enters the fog and disappears. Carmen and Marcus wait for Sara to return, but soon lose their patience. Unable to leave without Sara, Carmen enters the fog to look for her intern, but soon finds herself lost. Moments after Carmen enters, Marcus suddenly finds a scared and dazed Sara walking out. Within the fog, Carmen eventually comes across a statue of a demon holding a heart. Carmen takes a picture of it, but when she moves to the side of the statue to take another picture, she sees that the statue's head has turned to her direction. The statue's eyes bleed and the 'heart' in its hand starts to beat and strange whispering voices are heard. Now frightened, Carmen backs away from the statue and very strangely exits the fog rather quickly. Carmen is reunited with Marcus and Sara. Carmen and Sara briefly discuss their shared experiences within the fog.

As they make their way back to their car, they come across Lidia who claims to know the whereabouts of Eric. She takes them to a hidden sacrificial shrine where they discover the bodies of several people (including Eric) that the village people have executed. Each body has a metal mask strongly stuck on its face, making it look as though the villagers are cultists and are practicing some kind of ritual black magic on the tourists who come to Alvania. Marcus, Sara and Carmen notice that Lidia is gone and find the doors of the shrine barred. Luckily, Marcus is able to open it but they are suddenly pursued by the villagers. They flee and hide in a nearby barn where Sara is starting to feel sick. They are soon discovered though and struggle to escape. But one of the villagers captures Carmen and another knocks her out. Henryk shoots Sara's leg with a crossbow. The villagers knock her out with chloroform, but not before she sees the face of one of the villagers turn into a demon. Marcus runs into the forest and is chased by Henryk, who catches up with him. Marcus fights Henryk, but the latter gains the upper hand and knocks him out with chloroform.

As they wake up, they see Henryk talking to Lidia, who soon walks away. Sara vomits and the villagers bring them back to the entrance of the sacrificial shrine where the head of the village's church, Arkadiusz, decides to sacrifice both Sara and Carmen. The two are taken inside the shrine while Marcus is led away by two villagers and is forced at gunpoint to dig a grave. After one of them leaves, Marcus uses the shovel to disarm the remaining villager with the gun and knock him unconscious. He takes the gun and runs off to rescue Sara and Carmen. At the shrine, cultists strip Carmen and Sara and dress them in ceremonial gowns. The cultists place Sara on the same ceremonial table where Eric was killed while Carmen is placed in a prison cell. The cultists secure Sara's arms, legs, and head. They then deeply lacerate her arms and sever her Achilles' tendons. While this is being done to her, she sees the faces of the cultists and Arkadiusz turn into demons. The same mask earlier found on the corpses is placed over Sara's head. It has two spikes inside of it which are meant to pierce Sara's eyes. Arkadiusz takes a sledgehammer and uses it to embed the mask into Sara's face, killing her. One of the cultists looks at Carmen and she sees that the cultist's face has become that of a demon. They bring her out to be sacrificed but Marcus rescues her. He locks the cultists in the shrine and he and Carmen make their escape.

Carmen stops to vomit and begins hearing voices again. They enter a villager's house to steal the keys to a truck. Marcus sees a woman, Emilia, and her son, Dariusz, in the kitchen. The woman calls for her husband, Aleks, but is unable to do anything since Marcus still has the gun. The family becomes visibly frightened and anxious upon seeing Carmen. Marcus asks them for the keys to the truck but they can't understand English. Marcus takes the family to their living room and ties up the couple. While Marcus tries to get them to give him the keys, Carmen continues to hear voices. She sees the objects in the room shake. She sees the entire family and Marcus turn into demons with the two parents having freed themselves and crawl on the floor. But in truth, all of them are still human and Emilia and Aleks are still tied up. Carmen hides in another room where she continues to see and hear things. Dariusz, who understands and speaks English, leads Marcus back to the kitchen and gives him the truck keys. Not wanting to risk Dariusz going out and calling for help, Marcus also ties him up. The boy begs for Marcus to let them go and warns him that Carmen is evil since "She has seen the statue".

Carmen is then possessed by a demon while she is alone in the room and lets out a very loud shriek. The cultists, who have gotten free and are looking for her, hear the shriek and are alerted to Carmen's location. Marcus hears Carmen calling out to him. As he enters the room she went inside through a door from the kitchen, the door leading back to the living room closes. Marcus hears Aleks and Emilia scream in fear and pain, followed by footsteps going to the kitchen. He then hears Dariusz screaming. As he looks out from the door, he sees the boy being dragged away. The door then closes and Dariusz's screaming stops. The door leading to the living room slowly opens where Marcus finds the entire family brutally killed. The possessed Carmen then jumps on him and pins him on the floor.

Just as she is about to kill him, she is confronted by Arkadiusz, Henryk and four other cultists. She kills two of them, but Arkadiusz fights back with prayers and holy water. He calls for the mask but the cultist holding the mask is stunned with fear, giving the possessed Carmen the opportunity to impale Arkadiusz. She turns her attention back to Marcus. Before Arkadiusz dies, he passes on his duties to Henryk. Henryk chants prayers while splashing Carmen with holy water, and stabs her. The prayers weaken her, allowing Henryk to slowly set her on the floor. The two remaining cultists help by impaling Carmen's hands and pin her to the floor. Henryk calls for the mask and this time, the cultist holding the mask complies. They position the mask over Carmen's face while Henryk readies the sledgehammer. However Carmen's struggles prevent the mask from being properly placed over her eyes. Marcus now understands what is going on and why it was necessary to kill Sara and Carmen. The cultists aren't cultists, and they weren't sacrificing anyone; they were trying to prevent demonic possessions from taking place. He assists Henryk and the others by holding Carmen's head in place. As Henryk readies the sledgehammer to embed the mask, the demon tries to deceive Marcus into helping it by reverting Carmen to normal. But he ignores the plea, knowing it's just a trick. Henryk sends the sledgehammer down and embeds the mask onto Carmen, killing her.

As Marcus looks on worriedly at Henryk and the remaining men, one of them asks Henryk as to what are they going to do with Marcus since he knows too much. In the end, Marcus is set free by the villagers. Henryk offers to have one of the village's men take him to where he needs to go. Marcus looks over to the forest where the fog is seen. Not knowing what is really inside the fog, he asks Henryk about it. He is told that the fog is a curse left long ago on the village that cannot be undone. The devilish statue is shown once more and the screen goes black.

The Shrine was directed by Jon Knautz, who also co-wrote the film's script alongside Brendan Moore. Knautz had previously directed the 2007 comedy horror film Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer.[1] On 2 August 2009, it was announced that Aaron Ashmore, who had previously starred in the television series Smallville had been cast in the film's lead male role.[2] Cindy Sampson, Meghan Heffern, and Trevor Matthews were later cast in the film.[3]

Principal photography for the film began on 10 August 2009, in Toronto.[2]

The Shrine premiered at the FanTasia Film Festival on 25 July 2010.[4]

Bill Gibron from PopMatters gave the film 6/10 stars, writing, "Clearly, writer/director Jon Knautz hoped the investigative journalist set-up would tie everything together. Instead, thanks to a horribly unlikable lead, it pulls them apart. As a result, we are stuck grading the effectiveness of each bit, and when the final tally is examined, The Shrine doesn't survive."[6]

• The Shrine (2010) at AllMovie
• The Shrine (2010) at IMDb
• The Shrine (2010) at Rotten Tomatoes