The Seasoning House (2012)

Genre : Horror/Thriller
Country : UK

Cast :
Rosie Day : Angel
Sean Pertwee : Goran
Kevin Howarth : Viktor

Director :
Paul Hyett

Summary
The Seasoning House: where young girls are prostituted to the military. An orphaned deaf mute is enslaved to care for them. She moves between the walls and crawlspaces, showing the little kindnesses when she can. When fate brings the men that murdered her family and the reason she ended up in the whore house, a chain of events begins that will end her captivity ...

My opinion

"The seasoning House" is another movie that'll make you feel uncomfortably. It's definitely not for sensitive souls who are shocked easily. This movie isn't a Horror movie. The sadistic and brutal overtones marches forth throughout the movie and are brutally stopped by a devastating revenge caused by the urge to survive. There's no explicit gore that hits you like a sledgehammer, but it's the evocative atmosphere that makes you feel disgusted. It's a dilapidated hovel with timbered windows and an interior that's not looked after for years. No one comes to admire the furniture but comes there to satisfy his animal appetites and to take it out on those innocent girls.

It's situated during the Balkan war in the 90s where the army brutally conquered villages and slaughtered everyone except the younger girls. These poor girls were transported to this remote hovel as prostitutes and were abused at will for a lot of money by sadistic men. Some girls don't survive this brutal treatment and are simply wrapped in a blanket and dumped somewhere. To think that these practices actually occurred in these parts makes it worse and shocking realistic.
 

The girl Angel, who is a deaf mute, actually gets a preferential treatment (sounds pretty stupid, I know) and is responsible for drugging the girls and the care and cleaning after more scum has come along. There is no escape and submissively she performs these tasks. Until she actually gets an emotional bond with a new girl who is horribly abused afterwards. The moment a unit of soldiers arrives, who are also responsible for the death of Angels family, and a huge dude abuses that girl severely, Angel jumps in to help her in a rather bloody way and flees away between the floor and walls.
 

The first 40 minutes are quite slowly and have a claustrophobic tone, where you can see Angel browsing through the corridors and carrying out the tasks in a trance, while dodging away from grabbing perverts. Personally I thought the gore part wasn't that hard. The more the oppressive discomfort was present. I was sometimes painful to watch, and not in a physical way. The whole movie feels like a crazy ride on a roller coaster: First excruciatingly slow, then breathtaking and surprisingly fast, to end up in a slower pace.
 

The only criticism I could cite is that it is rather implausible that a simple girl, armed only with a kind of scalpel and a syringe with heroin , could outwit and defeat heavily armed soldiers. Most of it was also pure luck they were eliminated. The final scene will make you feel relieved and will give you a good feeling. Especially the face-to-face confrontation with Goran is a highlight. Just how could Angel crawl back in that narrow tube ?

Conclusion: a tough and confrontational movie that will jolt you a conscience with a sledgehammer. A piece of advice: don't watch this on your first date. It might give a false impression !

My rating 7 /10
Links : IMDB