User reviews

So three friends travel to Japan and go visit a temple that all the locals warn them against going near. Folks never learn do they, if the locals say stay the hell away then *Drumroll* stay the hell away.

Character development was spot on from the outset so I expected something a bit better. Instead the movie plods along up until the half way point and then turns to crap.

It all falls apart to such an extent that it becomes almost unwatchable. Our heroes arrive at the titular temple and well I'm sure you can pretty much work that one out for yourself.

The end has an ambiguous "Twist" but that does nothing to save the movie from its fate as a mediocre mess.

The Good:

Beginning is interesting enough

The Bad:

Loses steam at around the half way mark

Ultimately is just an all round mess

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

If folks listened to the warnings of the locals these movies might actually be better

A better title for this movie would have been Friendzone, scary stuff

Its pretty bad.

Temple isn't scary, suspenseful nor is it interesting, and its probably one of the worst movies of the year.

Its quite a messy movie, its all over the place in terms of storytelling and tone. It doesn't even feel like a complete movie, just when you think something interesting may happen the movie ends abruptly, which is a relief considering how painfully awful it is.

Boring, uninteresting, predictable and absurd.

Three American tourists (that create a love triangle) decide to visit a temple located at the forest of a small Japanese village, because one of the tourists (Kate) is studying religion and its traditions.

All well, seems like a decent plot and overall the acting (especially from the Japanese actors) is quite good. Except for the actress who played Kate, her acting skills need to improve... a lot.

Well-shot, with a good scenery of Japanese rural landscape.

Unfortunately the plot is very weak, there's no tension and the last 10 minutes seem rushed and quite confusing.

Could've been a good one but it was a waste of my time.

The film had beautiful photography direction, but the plot was unacceptable. It is literally a composition of erratic and incoherent plot points. The transition between these points was rather 'normal' in the beginning. However, there was such a lot of time invested in it, that the middle point was extremely rushed. I have never watched a movie that does not have an end. This film had a beginning and a middle - it lacked a denouement.

Natalia Warner's performance was atrocious. All she did was smile exaggeratedly in a tone that was quite reminiscent of a valley girl (without the 'oh my god's). There was a lot of subtlety in the feelings she had to convey, and not once was I convinced that I was seeing her as her character.

Brandon Sklenar, on the other hand, was promising, but he was purely decorative thanks to the predictability of his role. For such a small cast, that had a strong impact.

Character development was nonexistent. A group of three is in Japan and they decide to go a temple. We only know why they are there. That is pretty much it. Next thing we know is a repressed passion surfacing - though it was pretty evident from the first scenes.

Additionally, the sound effects were clumsily put together and did not have any fade-ins and fade-outs.

Finally, the Japanese cast was far superior to the American, but Logan Huffman's performance was acceptable, albeit constantly wearing a face in which he looked lost. I suspect this was a direction issue.

I always tell myself that even a bad movie will have something memorable and will be able to evoke some thoughts or feelings. Now, I do not consider this a bad movie, simply far from being a complete piece. As such, I am not sure what the takeaway is.

Oh wow guys. This represents Western ignorance? Man, that's deep. I know I've sure never seen a horror movie before where young American idiots ignored piles of blatant warning signs and got themselves killed in the woods by supernatural forces of evil. Thank goodness this brought Japan in to teach us this valuable lesson, especially since they're known for being so respectful of other cultures. Hur hur.

Forget about that though. Let's talk about how this movie is only 78 minutes long and is made up of about 63 minutes of build-up (and credits), leaving only around 15 minutes of jumbled, unsatisfying, lukewarm horror.

Let's talk about the fact that this movie has to promote itself by trying to invoke the names of more popular movies like You're Next and Blair Witch, but if you actually look at the credits you'll find that this was only written by the same writer of those, and was actually directed by that guy's brother who has nothing but cinematography credits to his name.

Makes sense though, doesn't it? The one positive thing I can say about this is it was certainly a well-shot film. Other than that though, it's an empty waste of time. Nothing but sightseeing shots and filler.

I had initially expected somewhat more from this horror movie, and I must admit that I was rather disappointed with the overall result of what the movie turned out to be.

The story told in "Temple" was pretty straight forward, although it didn't offer anything to the horror genre that hasn't already been done or seen in other horror movies.

The movie was surprisingly devoid of anything even remotely scary or impressive, and it just lulled itself into a tranquil pace that made it lose all momentum and drive. And it didn't help much that the characters were one-dimensional drones that served no purpose. This reflected badly on the actors and actresses, as they had surprisingly little to work with. Logan Huffman actually managed to perform somewhat adequately and keep the movie afloat.

If you enjoy a good horror movie, then this joined American and Japanese effort is not the best of choices to put your time and money.

I ignored the other warnings as I thought it must be ok if Netflix have picked it up. I was wrong. Please listen and Do literally anything else than watch this pile of incoherent nonsense.

I was blown away by how many people found this confusing, incomplete and not executed well!

It's a very simple story and told in a very simple way (not all over the place!). It excels in its cinematography and carries through from beginning to end in typical Asian thriller/horror style. If anything i would say it was more 'cookie- cutter' of many other films.

It isn't a deep philosophical movie with riveting plot line and award winning dialog, the acting wasn't contrived and out of place, all cast fit their roles well.

If you follow the dialog the story is knitted together quite well. Having said that, it is a 'simple horror flick' layered on top of Japanese spirit myth, can't understand why it got such a low rating.

This is a far cry from Simon Barrett's work with Adam Wingard. A running time of 78 minutes would be okay if those minutes were packed with meat, but this bone is padded with empty fat calories.

The storyline is like a stretched out short story. Character development is minimal. The payoff is pathetic. The camera work is nice during the set-up scenes in the city and daylight but once the "scary" stuff starts we are literally in the dark, annoyingly so, for long stretches with whatever is finally happening taking place in short bursts in near pitch darkness. One major "surprise" is obvious right from its initial setup.

If you think you're in the mood for this, I'd recommend watching The Forest instead, even if you've already seen it.

Pretty actors but ugly movie, nothing to remember about it.

WHAT A CRAP ENDING... WHY no movie can just make a decent ending and explain the plot? I understood nothing... i don't even know who is alive and who is dead...

It starts OK it develops OK ... but sometime you must explain the audience where all this goes... boring and wasted 1.20 of my life

This isn't Horror, this is stupidity. No story, mediocre acting, and monsters that look like people dressed up in cheap Halloween costumes. Avoid.

I really dont understand the overall rating of this movie?? So just to be differnt, i am giving it a full rating. It has suspense, good acting and a good plot. I reminds me of the films like Ringu and Ju-on. Not that they are alike, but the feeling i had when i watched those two movies, are the same as watching this one. This film dont deserve the rating it got. It is far better.

I'm a sucker for anything Japanese, it's heartening now that there is an emerging genre of U. S made horror movies set in Japan using the much tried and tested fish out of water device and adding the J-Horror signature of spooky jumps, strange children, foreboding music and strange Japanese folk lore to repurpose the old fashioned three young and beautiful idiots go into a forest routine.

These particular idiots make a point of seeking haunted temples, deliberately not heeding massive warning signs and still managing to keep their "ere what's going on here look", all over their beautiful faces. The Japanese setting is crucial to this story, and to be fair the Japanese locales are authentic and serve to add a sense of other worldly menace to the story. You can see that the director knows his Japan, and uses it to extract every ounce of tension.

The acting, as mentioned is good, the actors all keep a straight face, looking suitably jaded and confused as three Americans would if they stumbled into a J-Horror movie, and the director keeps the tension tight, never going too far into silliness, but keeping enough intrigue to make you wonder where this will all lead.

It's a genuine scare flick, with its heart and hand firmly on its chest, with an intriguing premise that really does pull you in. Don't be too put off by the score here, it's much better than the reviews would make you believe.

This was a film, that, yet again seemed to have the potential to have been much better. There just seemed to be too many things going on that didn't seem to be significant or didn't contribute to any conclusions. Some nice cinematography, some good music, but not the best story-line.