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44 out of 55 people found the following comment useful :-
Solstice (2008) has that professional quality in a mid range budget movie. But, its rated PG., 18 December 2007
Author: fogfrogblog from United States

The plot is almost like that of What Lies Beneath, but played amongst teenagers. Very well made, the acting is authentic, characters are diverse and the plot doesn't give in till the end. The camera work and editing is very smooth, and not overdone, the sound effects as well. All in all you would enjoy this movie and worth your money.

The down side for those thrill seekers and horror fans, is there is zero suspense, and no jolts, not even with the sound effects. It's more on the drama side. The Sixth Sense is far more scarier than this.

And for those who likes skins, well, although all of the actors and actress are very good looking there is no part in the movie that could turn you on, RATED PG!

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23 out of 28 people found the following comment useful :-
Not a bad teen chiller, 29 December 2007
Author: onosideboard from United States

I don't really understand why this is a direct-to-video flick, as it had high production quality, familiar faces from TV, and a plot straight out of a Christopher Pike or R.L. Stein book. (Do those guys still put out books? I'm dating myself, but I used to read that junk 15 years ago.) Anyway, it was fairly predictable and certainly not very scary, but benefited from the always-fantastic atmosphere of back-woods Louisiana. Seriously, I think all horror movies should be set in the swamps of Louisiana. Much like Skeleton Key and Venom, Solstice probably gets a whole extra star for location alone.

The "teens" were all easy on the eyes (most of the actors are in their late twenties, but whatever) and performances were adequate at worst.

I'd give Solstice a 6 out of 10, considering it a teen chiller as opposed to a real horror movie.

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31 out of 47 people found the following comment useful :-
Whilst it's a good film, it's one of the tamest "horror" movies I have seen in a long, long time..., 8 December 2007

Author: Slasher_Guy

I've just finished watching an early release of Solstice, and I have mixed feelings towards the film overall. I have been awaiting the movie for a while, and whilst I am thankful the overall movie is actually good - I can't help but feel disappointed at the same time. Perhaps I went in expecting a horror film? Because that is not what I got while watching Solstice. Solstice is one of the tamest horror films I have seen in a long, long time as a huge horror fan, and even "The Messengers" has more violence than this. That's saying something.

The movie tells the story about Megan (Elisabeth Harnois) who heads away with her friends for the weekend after the suicide of her twin sister. However, Megan begins to receive disturbances which she believes to be caused by her deceased twin and sets out to uncover the truth. I like the plot, it's interesting and one of the reasons I watched the film.

I'll start with the positives here, as this is a good film. The movie has a great range of actors who all deliver great performances. I was particularly impressed with Hilarie Burton, as she had a great, bitchy character to work with. R. Lee Ermey also has a cameo role, and while it could have been expanded - he is good, as expected. The movie also starts off pretty strong and the characters are likable, and the plot is interesting to watch. The only other movie released recently about female twins was "I Know Who Killed Me", so I had to see what Solstice had to offer.

However, Solstice advertises itself as a horror movie, but quite frankly - it really isn't. Just because it has a plot involving a ghost doesn't mean it is a horror film, as this movie does not feel like a horror film apart from very few drops of blood and a few shots of a ghost. There is minimal violence in the film and minimal blood and gore, but I expected this because of the films rating. If you thought The Messengers, The Fog remake and many others were tame...wait until you see this! I mean, there was hardly any suspense or tension either. I hardly call a cars headlights going on and off suspenseful, do you? Maybe once - yes, but when they use these kind of things dozens of times in a row in this movie...it's like a "wtf" moment. This is probably when you'll realize that this is the most "horror" this movie has to offer...yet again, headlights turning on and off isn't exactly scary is it?!

I just think Solstice ultimately suffered in the horror department. This is still supposed to be a horror movie, and it still needed the suspense, violence and more. It had literally nothing apart from a few ghostly images and a bit of violence near the end...and thats what disappointed me the most. I wouldn't classify this as a horror movie because it just doesn't feel like one. Even when the supposed "horror" comes, it takes a while and it's just really the lead female character being creeped out over and over again by cars, cuddly toys and nightmares. It more-or-less feels like a teen drama like "The OC" with some kind of "Halloween Special", or maybe even a Goosebumps episode. It's a good movie, but it needed more horror! a lot more actually!

6/10

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10 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Surprisingly Good, 30 September 2008

Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Six months after the suicide of her twin sister Sofie (Elisabeth Harnois), Megan (Elisabeth Harnois) still grieves her death and misses her beloved sister. In the Saint John's Eve, Megan travels with her friends Christian (Shawn Ashmore), Zoe (Amanda Seyfried), Mark (Matt O'Leary) and Alicia (Hilarie Burton) to her family's house in Nowell Lake, Louisiana, to celebrate the summer solstice. While shopping supplies in a local store, Megan befriends the seller Nick (Tyler Hoechlin) and buys a magazine with an article about communication with the dead in the summer solstice, the time of year when there is the greatest length of daylight. While in her house, Megan is haunted by a spirit that she believes is Sofie trying to communicate with her. In her investigation, she suspects of the weird hick Leonard (R. Lee Ermey) and while snooping in his house, she finds the picture of the missing girl Malin (Jenna Hildebrand) and unravels a dark secret about the suicide of her sister.

The low-budget "Solstice" was a great surprise with a consistent story, solid screenplay and good acting. The original story startles in many moments without gore, and the young team of gorgeous actresses and handsome actors has great performances. I was expecting to see another slasher teen horror movie and found a pleasant surprise. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Just another boring ghost movie, 28 August 2008

Author: quanto99 from Rio de Janeiro

Well, Solstice gets a high-five for good casting, visuals, sound and overall atmosphere.

Only problem is the story. It's the same type of ghost story a proper horror fan has seen a gazillion times. And it's a remake! Why? Also, at 87 minutes, this felt like hours. Bo-ring. There are red herrings, scary shadows, MTV-style flashbacks from the dead, and while it's all well done, it's all been done before. Thank you, but no.

Myrick had a mediocre movie (Believers, also (V)) and a good one ruined by a terribly miscast main actor and a "gotcha-sucker!" ending (The Objective). At least here, justice was served and this went straight to DVD where it belongs.

Eduardo Sanchez' "Altered", although more of a sci-fi horror hybrid on a low budget, is superior to all of the above mentioned films in my opinion. Here's hoping that Myrick (who has loads of talent) will make a proper good movie in the future.

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12 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
One of the best B - movies I've ever seen!, 21 December 2007
Author: mia_babe5 from Sweden

I must say I really enjoyed this movie,I thought the acting was really good and the story was good. But I wouldn't say that its a Horror movie you may jump a couple of times because you weren't ready for something to happen but its nothing "scary" in the sense that its a lot of gore or things that are often in horror movies I'd say its the music and the sound affects that does most of the so called "scare" but I would say its a really good thriller! I also like it because the movie didn't die of in part of the movie like it does in many movies. its really consistent all through the movie, witch is important so you don't get bored or sit and wait for something to happen. An overall good thriller well worth watching! Its a 7/10 for me.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Just another teen chiller, 9 December 2008

Author: Francisco Rotondi from Argentina

Before I start, I'd like to make it clear that I didn't hate this movie, but I hated the enormous amount of annoying clichés. To be fair, this is by some means understandable, considering that we're talking about the classic horror formula for the young audiences that involves a group of young friends taking a trip to the middle of nowhere. Personally, I have nothing against these types of films, but in this case, my problem is that even though I can tolerate typical clichés, a movie should always offer something particularly good to praise. Unfortunately, this is not the case. 'Solstice' is your average teenage flick, with nothing good enough to remain in our memory. It's a plain horror flick that I'm already forgetting, even though I saw it less than 24 hours ago.

The story is about a troubled young girl named Megan, whose sister Sofie committed suicide for unknown reasons. Troubled and fragile as she is, Megan still thinks it would be a great idea to take a trip to her family house to celebrate the summer solstice. Her moronic friends are invited, of course, including her sister's ex boyfriend (who by the way, has a crush on her). As soon as they arrive, Megan begins to have some horrible visions and also sees a dark figure (a spirit) lurking around the house, which she believes is Sofie. In the meantime, her friends try to convince her that she's just having a hard time dealing with the situation, but the poor girl still goes out of her way to find out if her dead sister is actually trying to tell her something. Great news for Megan!: apparently, the summer solstice is supposed to be the most convenient time of year to communicate with the dead... so guess what? Exactly. All the stupid teenagers, reluctantly set up a circle to have a nice conversation with dead Sofie. Because you know what the say: it's not a kick-ass trip until you invoke a spirit from the beyond.

Basically, the story has been done many times before, but there are some variations, of course. Personally, I don't mind that. I firmly believe that you can make a great horror movie with a worn out plot, if you create the right atmosphere, with the right characters and at least ONE memorable thing. Unfortunately, this is not the case and like I said before, the problem with this film, is the amount of repetitive situations that only produce a strong desire to fast forward. Example? all right: the typical situations of "Oh my god! I packed this a while ago!, how come it's here again! spirits from the beyond are messing with the things I packed!! (yawn) And you know what's the best part? all right, in many horror movies, the main character is haunted by a specific object that belonged to someone who died. Example: In 'The Changeling' George Scott always sees a small rubber ball that belonged to his late daughter. Well, in 'Solstice', Megan is haunted by... a bear keyring! yes, ladies and gentlemen, that's right, a bear keyring! I could never really get over the image of the ridiculous little bear in what was supposed to be freaky.

"Solstcide" offers a vast quantity of pointless scenes full of scares and ineffective chills that lead to nothing at all. Perhaps they wouldn't be completely pointless if they helped to build an atmosphere of fear and tension, but in this case, it's mostly tedious. The only interesting parts of the movie are the ones that involve the local creepy old man and his background story. As the movie goes, we see a few things about this character, that help to build some intrigue. Then, we have some flashback and premonitory visions that are incredibly artsy and dark, which I appreciated a lot. These morbid visions are a way to tell what happened in the past and unravel little by little the intriguing parts of the story. So basically, these flashbacks are not only nice to look at, but also, pretty much one of the main reasons why this movie got my attention in any way.

The ending is somehow fulfilling and a bit surprising, although not quite enough to redeem the movie entirely. But if I have to be nice and focus on the good aspect of it: the final revelations and the minutes of the film in which the big mysteries are revealed and resolved, were pretty interesting, actually. It has a twist, but not an excessive and far-fetched twist. So my humble advice is: watch the movie if you're in the mood for a teen chiller, but don't expect anything grandiose, because you won't find it in this film. And just because it was directed by one of the guys who directed 'The Blair Witch Project', don't expect anything even remotely comparable, because that will be your worst disappointment.

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Communicating with the dead..., 31 December 2008

Author: mario_c from Porto, Portugal

SOLSTICE is a remake of a Danish film called MIDSOMMER. I didn't watch the original but it's probably better than this American remake... I mean, SOLSTICE it's not bad for a typical 90's Horror film about ghosts, but it's not beyond average either. It's just right that, an average and unoriginal flick about ghosts, but it's entertaining though.

The plot is about a teenage girl who recently lost her twin sister, and when she goes to a rustic house in the woods with her friends to forgot about what happened she start seeing things... ghostly things... She thinks it's her sister, but later she finds out it's not...

This thematic about ghosts and the communication with the dead was done and redone so many times that to be great a movie about this theme must be very original and different from what has been done, otherwise it will be just another clichéd horror flick about ghosts. And that's precisely what happens with this SOLSTICE. It brought nothing new or original to the genre, so it's just "another one"...

However, it is suspenseful enough, some FX are well done and the soundtrack is nice too, so I score it 5/10.

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8 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
Good, but Not Perfect, 4 January 2008

Author: my_anywhere from United States

Okay, so this movie went straight to DVD, which would have many people assuming that it can't be all that great, and while it wasn't the best horror movie I've ever seen it wasn't bad at all. Despite what I've read, it had really good pacing with a number of creepy scenes spread out in the movie enough to keep one interested and slightly creeped out. The acting really helps too and you can see all the inner conflicts of the two main characters as they struggle to come to terms with what they're dealing with. The only thing I didn't like was the way the climax of the movie ended. The rest of the climax is great, but the resolution...not what I would have done. All in all, this movie was worth watching and I'm glad I saw it.

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1 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Pretty entertaining, 6 December 2008

Author: collipal-1 from Argentina

In 1999,The Blair Witch Project provoked a worldwide commotion because of its original (by that time) concept and for its minimalistic style.I liked that movie very much for being so innovative and for scaring me pretty much.After that,directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez seemed to have a brilliant future in the horror genre.But,it was not like that : they separated as a creative team and their following movies had a low-profile because they were made to the straight-to-DVD market and not many people know of their existence.By my point of view,their movies overcome the average of horror films made straight-to-DVD and,in spite of not being at the same level of The Blair Witch Project,I liked them pretty much.Now,we have Solstice,Myrick's most recent film and I also liked it pretty much.Solstice combines pretty well common clichés of different generations of ghosts movies,from the dark and Gothic atmosphere of Don't Look Now,to the ambiguous ghosts of the modern Asian horror cinema; fortunately,the movie uses that clichés with moderation and they are not used in an arbitrary way,but they are used as tools for telling an interesting and logic story,whose solid development and realistic characters lead to an unexpected ending which works very well.I also appreciated Myrick's restrained direction and the attractive cinematography.One of the few fails I found on this movie are the special effects because they do not produce too much impact.The cast is another good point from this movie,because everybody brings credible performances; I think the ones who mostly stand out are Elizabeth Harnois,Amanda Seyfried and the great R. Lee Ermey.Solstice is not a great movie and it's far away from it.But it brought me an interesting and very entertaining experience which concludes on a very satisfactory ending because it closes the story very well and it does not leave any plot holes or things without an explanation.In summary,Solstice is a very good horror film and I recommend it.

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