The Seasoning House (2012)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

People are voting emotionally.

Best movie ever!

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

A girl crawls through a vent, walks among a bunch of sinister men, is told to prepare the girls, grabs a box with needles and drugs, and drugs some girl laying on a filth bed. Next we go back to the day she herself arrived at the place. She and a bunch of girls are taken to the house. They meet the boss, Viktor, who tells them he'll take care of them if they take care of him and that trust is key. He grabs some girls and cuts her throat to make his point. We go back and forth between the present and the girl's past. She's deaf and during the Balkan war her family was killed by some military unit. Now she's enslaved in the filthy whorehouse but she's the one whom Viktor trusts. She feeds the girls, drugs them and puts make-up on them when the customers arrive, most of whom are violent. When a girl is beaten to death she cleans the body. And in her spare time she wanders through the vents and crawlspace.A new set of girls arrive. On of them knows sign language and befriends Angel, the deaf girl. One day a customer breaks the pelvis of Angel's friend but that doesn't keep Viktor and some doctor from forcing her to continue to work. When some militia arrive, Angel witnesses how her friend is killed during sex. She tries to intervene and in a struggle ends up killing the huge customer. That infuriates the militia commander. He's someone we've met before, he was in charge of the raid that killed Angel's family--what a coincidence. Now everyone is after her but she escapes through the crawlspace with one guy chasing after he. Eventually she escapes the house. Viktor, the commander, and his brother pursue her. Somehow she'll have to survive.The Seasoning House is one of those movies that wears you down by the sheer and relentless ugliness and hopelessness of it all. The story is obviously unpleasant, everything is dirty, ugly, and nasty visually, well, except for Angel. Making her deaf and unable to speak is an unusual choice. But it's almost the next logical step in movie-making that enjoys keeping dialogue to a minimum. Another surprise is that this movie could have turned into revenge horror but it never does, in spite of some calling it a revenge thriller. The movie is occasionally very gory. But like most movies these days it portrays men in the worst possible light. There's not a single decent guy in this movie. Things do occasionally slow down quite a bit and clearly there's not a whole lot of story or script but the lovely Rosie Day makes it all bearable.

I like the ol' indie films and ones with originality. But this film also has balls, and the true ability to shock, in some truly repellent and confronting moments that are full on. The Seasoning House was pretty much what I expected, as in only seeing bits of it on the free movie channel. Here in it's watch of entirety, what impressed me was the raw brutality of these military pigs who have their way, sexually, with these group of enslaved young girls. You underestimate how merciless they really are. The girls are not in the best states either, faces bloodied, bodies bruised, where rough sex against their will, doesn't help either. The youngest girl, a mute, is entrusted by a pimp to look after the girls. Some of the girls aren't so lucky, where this long time abuse has taken a toll on them, their bodies dumped in the cold dark woods. When the mute girl recognizes a squad of soldiers led by a ferociously cold hearted corporal (Sean Pertwee) as the ones who killed her family, she becomes a one girl vendetta, disposing of these scum in a much bloody, exhilarating and appreciative style, as like in Bedeviled. There were no real surprises in this film, like when the girl is taken in, and wakes up in suspicious surroundings with a lot of pig memorabilia, one might say. What gives it away is a familiar gesture at the start of that scene, where how her fates end in the finale is worrying if stereotypical, as if seeing other dark themed films like this. TSH is a nifty little Indie shocker, with raw moments that really shock. Be warned. The whole mood of the film is cold, set during the Balkans war of 96', painting a very dark and unflattering picture, but who am I to say if this applied to a few of them troops in a lower degree.

I watched this movie last night and the first thing I wanted to do when it was over was to contact Sean Pertwee, whom I have always liked, and tell him that I thought he gave a POWERHOUSE performance of his career in this movie. Sadly, I was unable to contact him via Facebook so I'll just have to hope he reads this.The Seasoning House's subject matter is a very upsetting and hard to watch in places but.....WOW, where do I start heaping the praise? Well first I have to say that I was shocked to learn, while watching the special features on the DVD, that this is Rosie Day's FIRST leading roll in a movie. She is like a seasoned (pun intended) actor with many years of experience under her belt. This young lady should go a long, long way in the film making business and was totally brilliant as Little Angel.Kevin Howarth also deserves high praise for his roll as Viktor as he was also totally convincing for his part and EVERY other actor seemed totally committed to making this movie work, especially the young ladies. Paul Hyett (director) also did an exceptional job with some clever camera work on a lot of scenes.But, as I have already stated, THE kudos in my opinion must go to Sean Pertwee in the roll of Goran. He was so realistic as this character that he REALLY bothered and unnerved me. I have seen pretty much everything he has done but this was by far the one I will remember the most. Amazing Mr. Pertwee, simply amazing.P.S. Not overjoyed with the ending!!!

"The Seasoning House" was really not what I had expected it to be from the movie cover. But I must say that I wasn't sorely disappointed that the movie turned out to be something other than what I had thought it to be.This movie is brutal, not just visually, but also emotionally. Especially because the movie is shot the way that it is, and it is nicely edited. There is just something very realistic, albeit horrible nonetheless, to this movie, and that is really what makes "The Seasoning House" work out so well.The story is about a group of young girls brought to a remote house, against their will, where they are forced into servitude and have to perform sexual acts for customers that frequent the house. The mute girl Angel (played by Rosie Day) works the house as a helper, also against her will, when fate brings those who killed her family to the house, and things spiral out of control, as fate deals Angel an unforeseen card.Now, "The Seasoning House" is a very brutal movie, as I mentioned before. Visually because of the scenes portrayed and the horrors that take place in the house where the girls are kept as slaves, drugged and abused. And emotionally because of the events that unfold in the story, and also because the characters are characters you can relate to and very quickly build up some kind of empathy or antipathy for very quickly.Director Paul Hyett managed to put together something really unique here, and this is definitely a movie that you need to watch. And once watched, it is most likely a movie that will stick with you for a long time afterwards.The cast were doing great jobs, although the English language with a pseudo-Eastern European accent wasn't really doing the trick. But it was a minor inconvenience, because the rest of the movie overshadowed this flaw."The Seasoning House" is well worth watching, despite it being rather grotesque in its story and imagery. But it just goes to prove that movies doesn't all have to be glamor and happy days...