Sin Reaper is truly a magical film - in the respect that it makes time slow down to a crawl and manages to make an hour-and-a-half feel at least twice that long. It's a pretty unexciting slasher that squanders a unique setting (a monastery) and a cool looking bad guy/weapon. Also, the title is just kind of weird to me... I keep on emphasizing the "Reaper" (as in "Grim Reaper"), but in the film they emphasize "Sin" - as in, a guy who reaps sin. Which is grammatically correct, I suppose - you can't reap grim... but it still sounds weird to me. You know when those types of concerns are running through your head that you're probably not watching a very engaging film.
Anyways, Sin Reaper centers on an "American" girl named Samantha. (I say "American" because (a) she's clearly not, and (b) there's no reason she even has to be.... or even any specific nationality. But the filmmakers go out of their way to make sure you know... it's kind of weird.) She's been having terrifying dreams and is on a cocktail of psychiatric drugs to help her control them. But her dreams very specifically evoke a particular monastery in Germany. So her psychologist (a disinterested Lance Henriksen - removed enough from the action that it had to just be an afternoon of work for him) suggests she travels there to face her fears. So she does.
Samantha makes a few new friends there, *way* too fast. I'm relatively anti-social but I'm pretty sure you don't just say hi to people and then they are your friends. There were some shortcuts taken to make things work here, is what I'm saying. Anyways, when the four of them are stonewalled at the monastery during open hours, they decide to sneak in at night. Unfortunately for them, they are confronted and then trapped there by a crazy killer. Good times!
Sin Reaper gets a nod from Fangoria, so it's odd that the gore is actually pretty weak. The whole story/execution plays out like the kind of film that would *maybe* work if there was some wicked kills or something - like the bland characters and weak story are just connective tissue from one kill scene to the next. But the kills just aren't here. (I mean, yeah, people die - but those scenes are very unspectacular.) A film like this at least needs to do *something* well - if you can't give me the kills, at least give me some atmosphere, or humor... cripes, even nudity would be *something.* But Sin Reaper just sort of plods along, and the bad acting, boring (and predictable) story, and overall bland look aren't justified by having anything remotely cool happen. It keeps coming up online as Sin Reaper 3D, so maybe they thought the 3D could save it?
And really, it's too bad, because the killer looks badass - he's got what is essentially a knight's mask, but just has a cross in the face instead of grates:
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| the accurate (for once) box art |
I mean, you probably couldn't see shit out of it, but it looks pretty cool. And that's the weapon he uses too - a cross/knife thing with blades sticking out in all four directions. So there's obviously some potential there, but it just never comes together.
So I don't know - there's just really nothing here to recommend. Sin Reaper is slow and boring, and had me checking in on the "remaining time" early and often. Never a good sign. It's hard to even get worked up enough about it to write anything else.
I would not recommend this film.
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