End of the Line

2006, Canada

Director: Maurice Deveraux
Screenplay: Maurice Devereaux
Cast: Ilona Elkin Nicolas Wright Robin Wilcock Joan McBride
Producers: Maurice Devereaux, Adrien Morot
Genre: Horror

Running Time: 95 minutes

Website: http://www.endofthelinemovie.com/

Montreal filmmaker Maurice Deveraux has been toiling in the Canadian independent horror scene for years, with all the budgetary constraints and compromise that implies. However, with a bigger budget and bigger ideas, he’s back with End Of the Line, an ambitious film that played to a packed theatre at Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival last month. The film takes place almost entirely in the bowels of a metropolitan subway system where, in the blink of an eye, swarms of religious cultists begin slaughtering commuters, attempting to save their souls before a coming apocalypse.

Every truly great horror film deals with grand themes allegorically. However, not all horror filmmakers seem to have a firm grasp of what an allegory actually is. Ideally, these films would be dealing with their themes representationally, as opposed to literally. But for every critique of consumerism or exploration of depression like Dawn of the Dead or Dark Water, respectively, there’s an examination of what happens when a guy runs around with a power tool, like Driller Killer. In End Of The Line, Devereaux takes on religion, by having wide-eyed zealots in Boy Scout uniforms stab people with the kind of knives one buys at a  Star Trek convention. It’s heavy-handed, to say the least. But still, there are certainly some effective moments in the movie. The special effects are quite gruesome for the most part, and the ending, which has a nicely ambiguous feel, helps the film hit home in the last third. The performances are not stellar, though there are a few standouts, notably Emily Shelton as Julie and Ilona Elkin as lead Karen. Devereaux places some good scares in the film, however, and while his script deals with its themes rather obviously, that doesn’t invalidate what he has to say. And it’s nice to see that’s he’s finally found the money to say it loudly and clearly.

Rating: 5 on 10

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