THE SEASONING HOUSE – The Blu Review

Review by Sam Moffitt

Some horror movies are so horrible they are tough to watch. When characters go beyond, way beyond, what most people would consider civilized behavior into the realm of headline making atrocity you want to look away. But if the film makers are sincere, if the finished film has something to say about the human condition and is not just exploitation , you end up having to watch. You owe it to yourself, again if the film is well made, to watch, just to remind yourself what inhuman monsters people can be.

In the last few years a new kind of horror movie has been coming out of Europe. Films that push the envelope in recounting the horror of human existence, of what atrocity really looks like, up close and personal. Films like Martyrs, Irreversible, High Tension and Calvaire, also A Serbian Film (although I have not gotten to see that one.) Add to that list The Seasoning House, a grueling, shudder inducing look at the effects of the Balkan civil war.

Angel is a young deaf mute, played incredibly well by a very young girl named Rosie Day. Witnessing her Mother shot down in cold blood by Serbian “mIlitia” and her unarmed neighbors, women and children, in a quiet suburban neighborhood, slaughtered without mercy, is only the beginning of her ordeal.

Thrown in with women survivors, the young and attractive, she is pressed into service in a brothel run by a walking bucket of human shit named Viktor played by Kevin Howarth. These brothels did exist and the inhuman conditions portrayed were verified by the UN and the Red Cross when the Balkan wars finally ended.

Because of her condition and a large birth mark on her face Angel is considered damaged goods and is given the task of keeping the involuntary prostitutes doped up and occasionally fed gruel. She comes to a fragile friendship with one of the women, Violeta, played all too well by Anna Walton, and tries to offer help when she can.

Life in this brothel is strictly monitored but Angel learns to move secretly around the house through the heating ducts and tries to help the girls as best she can.

As nasty as Victor is he is a saint compared to the “militia” commander , Goran, played with bone chilling authority and menace by Sean Pertwee. It is he who ordered the death of Angel’s Mother and is of course recognized by Angel, who exacts some revenge that is only available in a movie. The Seasoning House is a revenge fantasy, comparable to Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds.

And what revenge! Angel’s friend among the women, Violeta, is raped so brutally her pelvis is broken. She is beaten bloody and is offered no real help from a Dr. who is under Victor’s control. He tells the Dr. the customer who committed this atrocity pays extra for the privilege of beating the women. And that he cannot afford to keep Violeta out of service while she heals.

Which leads to the re-appearance of Goran and his sub human sadists, one of whom rapes Violeta despite her bloodied condition and broken pelvis. This is one of the most grueling rape scenes I have ever witnessed, much worse than Irreversible. This is rough stuff folks, not a good date movie. I cannot imagine being a woman with a broken pelvis and having to endure what this poor woman is subjected to.

From the heating vent Angel witnesses this miserable slack jawed, drooling, knuckle dragging primate destroy the only friend she has. Her revenge is messy, bloody, ugly and savage and tops the rape itself for sadistic, unrelenting cruelty. If you’ve seen David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises with Viggo Mortensen you’ve seen a naked man being cut with knives. Take that scene and ramp it up about 100% and you’ve got some idea of this murder scene. This is not the quick, graceful ballet of brutality you might see in a Jason Statham or Jackie Chan movie. This is what revenge looks like, especially if you are smaller and basically defenseless as Angel is. Let me just say he doesn’t die easy, not…at…all.

Her ability to crawl through the vents in the old house keeps her one step ahead of Goran as his flunkies and minions one by one get their just desserts. The tension is unbearable and the pace is relentless. In real life Angel could not possible get away with what she accomplishes here. Like I said, this is a revenge fantasy for the powerless, a chance to strike back against inhuman evil.

Like the Germans who went along with the “Final Solution” without so much as saying “hey, wait a minute!” Or the Russians’ who cheerfully helped Stalin run the Gulag, or the Cambodians who mercilessly destroyed half their countries population, or the Colorado militia who killed Native women and children at Sand Creek without voicing any objection or, hell, name any number of disgraceful human atrocities from the last 200 years, these Serbian “militia” members have no problem at all with destroying women and children in the name of….what? Serbian statehood? Regional autonomy? “Ethnic cleansing?” Yeah, whatever.

Like I said earlier, this is not an exploitation movie, the English film makers who produced The Seasoning House have held a mirror up for the whole human race and asked us to take a good long look. “This is it folks! This is what happened and is happening right now somewhere in the world, even as we speak and likely will go on happening everywhere in the world until the human race pulls its collective head out it’s eternal ass!” This is what the Seasoning House is saying and it says it very well. It is also a nice reminder how lucky we have it here in the US of A. We are not living in fear of our neighbors invading our territory and killing our families, not yet anyway.

Be for warned, this is truly savage, horrifying material, it is an ordeal to watch. I don’t like to give out spoilers but there is a happy ending, sort of, but it is very tenuous. Any child that goes through what Angel endures is never going to be able to lead a “normal” life.

Well Go USA’s blu-ray disc is flawless, the film’s color palette is very muted and washed out to begin with, so this is not a bright, gleaming Hollywood type of movie, yet the detail in every shot is incredible.

There are not many extras, some trailers, the original trailer for Seasoning House and a terrific making of documentary. We see every aspect of this production, Paul Hyatt advises that he was given a very strict budget and that he and other writers wrote to the budget. In other words they fashioned the screenplay to fit what money they had. Contrast that with Hollywood film makers who are basically given a blank check to do with as they please.
We get a good look at how the special effects were created and how glad the film makers were to find Rosie Day to play Angel. We also see the cast and crew attend a film festival where Rosie Day receives a standing ovation after revealing that Seasoning House is, incredibly, her first attempt at acting. I sincerely hope she continues to act and gets something a bit more light hearted in the future.

I have no wise ass comment on my way out the door this time. I will go now and pray for the whole human race, sincerely, please do the same.