American filmmakers seem to have a huge problem with making horror films set in Japan, despite the attraction of the country and the wealth of folklore and atmosphere it brings with it. First we had the disappointment of THE FOREST with Natalie Dormer, and now this film. It sees a trio of young people heading off to Japan to research temples as part of a thesis, filming segments for their video blog along the way. The first half of the story is all set up and has a handful of eerie moments which work rather well. The performances are routine but there's an air of mystery surrounding the characters which makes you interested in them. Sadly, the second half falls apart in an aimless array of CGI ghost scares and too-dark photography, as the friends end up stranded in the wood with sinister forces at work. You've seen it all before from this point on and it becomes a huge disappointment.

Saw 'Temple', being fond of adventure/horror regardless of budget (even if not my favourite genre) and being intrigued somewhat by the idea. Being behind on my film watching and reviewing, with a long to watch and review list that keeps getting longer, it took me a while to get round to reviewing it.

Unfortunately, despite not reading any reviews purposefully before watching, am going to have to agree with all the reviewers who hated 'Temple'. There is very little to like here, next to no redeeming qualities at all, and there is not much to add to what has already been said so well. Never judge a film without seeing the whole thing and wanted to give 'Temple', so gave it a fair chance.

'Temple' has only some quite stylish photography and beautiful scenery going for it, hence why it's not gotten the lowest possible score from me.

However, 'Temple's' biggest problem is the story, or shall we say lack of it. It is paper thin, basically a short film stretched out to the point of interminability. One can mistake it understandably for not having a plot at all, or at least a discernible one. It takes forever to get going, and everything in the first half is uninteresting and too often adds nothing or serves no point. Second half is not much better, the un-scary and thoroughly predictable scares/horror elements are further undone by excessively loud and obvious sound effects and too dark lighting.

It is only in the last 10-15 minutes where anything resembling a story appears. Unfortunately 'Temple' completely fails to execute even that right. The whole film is horrendously paced, with much of it being endlessly dull, the ending has the opposite problem of being incredibly rushed. It's also incredibly chaotic and confused, too many things left hanging in the air or vague.

Direction is going through the motions like, while the script is childish, leaden and awkward. The characters are basically unsubtle and not particularly tasteful stereotypes and 'Temple' goes well overboard on the purposeful unlikeability that it is impossible to root for them. The acting is poor, with Natalia Warner being atrocious.

Overall, really bad, compensated solely by the photography and the scenery with the story destroying any hopes of the film being halfway decent. 2/10 Bethany Cox

So three friends travel to Japan and go visit a temple that all the locals warn them against going near. Folks never learn do they, if the locals say stay the hell away then *Drumroll* stay the hell away.

Character development was spot on from the outset so I expected something a bit better. Instead the movie plods along up until the half way point and then turns to crap.

It all falls apart to such an extent that it becomes almost unwatchable. Our heroes arrive at the titular temple and well I'm sure you can pretty much work that one out for yourself.

The end has an ambiguous "Twist" but that does nothing to save the movie from its fate as a mediocre mess.

The Good:

Beginning is interesting enough

The Bad:

Loses steam at around the half way mark

Ultimately is just an all round mess

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

If folks listened to the warnings of the locals these movies might actually be better

A better title for this movie would have been Friendzone, scary stuff