Coventry Review of The Seasoning House

The Seasoning House (2012)

Four devastating Seasons in one House...

[7/10 · 26 November 2012]

Wow, okay… when I watched "The Seasoning House" at a modest genre festival in my home country, I anticipated quite a number of things, but I didn't anticipate this! The film was scheduled as the closing feature, which is normally a festive event in a light-headed ambiance, but surely this didn't make the audiences very happy! I admit not having read the plot synopsis in great detail in advance, but from reading it distantly it looked like a variation on the 'rape-and-revenge' sub genre, like "I Spit on your Grave", "Last House on the Left". These are seldom cheerful films, of course, given the harsh and exploitative subject matter, but "The Seasoning House" is more intense, devastating and tragic than any other thriller in its kind. It's somewhat of a feminist horror/rape-and-revenge flick, but one set against the background of the ravaging civil war in the Balkans during the mid-1990's. Not only does the menace of an inhumanly cruel and cold war feels incredibly authentic, the story also introduces young girls as defenseless victims of a depraved and heartless prostitution network. When the rest of her family is brutally massacred by soldiers, deaf-mute teenage Angel ends up in an illegal sort of brothel run by the sadist Victor in the middle of the woods. The squadron that killed her mother and sister passes by the house one day, so she sees her chance for retaliation. Through the crawlspaces and the ventilation circuit throughout the old house, Angel battles against the relentless commander Goran and his team of perverted soldiers. "The Seasoning House" truly hits you like an emotional sledgehammer, with a few cruel execution sequences, a thorough raw atmosphere and deeply depressing cinematography and music. The acting performances are extraordinary, particularly those of adolescent starlets Rosie Day and Dominique Provost-Chalkley. Also giving another superb (and very ungrateful) performance is British cult-actor Sean Pertwee as the stone-cold and heartless military commander Goran. A very strong and remarkable debut for special effects wizard Paul Hyett. Recommended, but definitely not for the faint-hearted.