User Reviews

This had the potential to be a really nice independent thriller/horror. Unfortunately, while the performances are mostly fine (with a couple of exceptions), the writing is hopeless - it doesn't know what it wants to be and there are huge unexplained plot devices and many, many brooding characters.

It's a bit derivative of The Wicker Man (the good one!) but, had the plot progressed into something intelligible, that could have been forgiven, instead, the resolution seems to be almost cobbled together for the sake of getting it done and dusted.

BRACKENMORE is a simple indie horror flick from Ireland. The story follows the path of a young woman who visits her uncle's estate after his death in order to claim her inheritance. Unfortunately, she discovers that his neighbours are an oddball bunch who don't take kindly to her in their midst. This takes inspiration from the likes of WAKE WOOD, but is simply too predictable and too familiar to really work. The indie budget means that the whole thing plays out very slowly with little in the way of atmosphere or incident, and aside from the suitably weird ending this is a real patience tester.

I don't mind slow-burn, mysterious indie (or mainstream) films. But this doesn't really give you enough to make it worthwhile. There's not a single interesting, charismatic, or likable character in this. What's more, it's somewhat unbelievable in that the main character is a Londoner but has no big-city sense. I find it hard to believe that she would 1. believe she has a mysterious uncle like she's in some Dickensian novel, 2. believes it enough to go and then act like the ramshackle house she's inherited is somehow worth her time, 3. continues to stay around weird, rude, and creepy people when she could leave. She's really willing to be in such a nothing situation (in which her life is threatened) because her husband cheated on her? She's so weak that she'll stay in the relationship when she hates him for cheating on her? Why? Is it too expensive to move? Does she have money problems? Her uncle's house looks like it's not worth anything, so why pursue ownership? We're supposed to believe she feels a connection to the place, but it's expressed tenuously at best, even at the end. Her attack incident goes nowhere in the investigation--the cop just bullies her about drinking and doing drugs...that HIS fellow townspeople gave her. Dumb. She doesn't connect the dots when the new guy friend leaves and she gets attacked twice. She actually looks surprised. I think the only reason I kept watching is because it doesn't look like it was filmed on a phone several generations old and the acting is passable (if mediocre).

I wish people would learn to stop making movies with characters the viewer cannot empathize with and stop making d-bag characters just because. The cop in this is annoyingly, unnaturally rude and unprofessional. The friend/brother character kept making a poop faces instead of looking sad. And the husband's frosted tips are offensive. This film needed a FAR better writer than what they had. There is no explanation for the cult's motivations. What "new world" was the 10-person village trying to achieve? They don't seem to lack anything. It's not even explained. What is the "thing" that's a part of the main character and causes her to kill the people at the end? Apparently, it's none of our business.

Nothing new here and not even close to entertaining. And how many times are we gonna see the helpless victim on the ground being choked out and manages to find a blunt object to kill the perp? It's been done 7474738377 times and quite honestly it's not believable.

Marriage is thicker than blood. In this little semi-precious stone, like the ones found all over Ireland (jasper, bloodstone, etc.) the people of the druidic Old Way gets the kick in the arse that so many of us wish would have happened to the good folks of Summerisle in The Wicker Man (original version). Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and the writer and director make this point clear. Nobody cares about your silly religion. The only thing that matters is the love between a man and a woman, which represents the love of the True God for mankind.