Toronto. The Passage.

"The Passage, a beautifully photographed debut from British director Mark Heller, contains a plot that's nearly identical to Hostel (on paper, at least), slowed down to a tenth of its original speed," writes Eric Kohn for indieWIRE. "The Passage almost rescues itself with a fresh situation - but the climax, no matter its intentions, slovenly derives from the pretentious gravitas that often plagues contemporary American horror films."

"Suffice to say that any horror fan worth his salt will figure out where The Passage is headed after only about 25 minutes - and then it goes precisely there," writes Scott Weinberg at Cinematical. "The scenery is handsome and the screenplay's not half-bad, but there's always something to be said for a little originality, and unfortunately that's one thing that The Passage lacks. Big time."

"Some movies wear their heart on their sleeve, this one wears its brain there," writes Kurt Halfyard at Twitch. "This is a shame as it spoils some effective tension building from first time Brit director Mark Heller. Even moreso, it wastes a star making performance from Israeli born actress Sarai Givaty who plays Zahara with as a women who is modern, confident, stunningly gorgeous and laced with a heady mix of altruistic naïveté and dangerous menace. Exactly the qualities that tend to attract folks to slices of benign exoticism such as this."

"This is, I feel fairly confident, the worst movie I will see this year, in Toronto or anywhere else," blogged the LA Weekly's Scott Foundas mid-fest.

Posted by dwhudson at October 2, 2007 8:00 AM