Curse of the Sin Eater

Sin eaters have already been dealt with in a couple of horror films, such as Sin Eater (2022) and the short The Sin-Eater (2024), which have also been touched on in this site. Texas-bred Justin Denton who goes by the virtue of a visual effect artist has made his indepenedent full feature debut titled Curse of the Sin Eater after polishing towards this direction through the short films Beware Crimson Peak 2015 and Burlap 2016.

He notes that Curse of the Sin Eater, probably owing to the pen of Davis who has notable screenwriting works such as Broken Ceiling, and Will Corona Pilgrim, the MCU ally of Marvel Comics, While the story takes place in the modern age, it bears clear elements of sin eating practices of middle ages, particularly understood through the prism of British Wales and neighbouring counties.

Curse of the Sin Eater now tells a story about Rick Malone (Carter Shimp, The Year Between, Ghosts of the Void) a young construction worker who has nothing working for him and lives in Chicago’s Southside slum at the run down apartment of his friend Jeremy (Marcelo Wright, Chicago P.D.).

Flashbacks show that three years earlier, during the scenes narrated in the present, Rick’s ex pistol-whipped her mother in the beginning of the film and now it’s work time but Rick is late and almost gets fired upon arrival at the construction site he was assigned.

So as to not bleed too much after cutting himself with a piece of paper, Rick requests for a band-aid from Anton and is grudgingly allowed inside the magnificent building at the working area. Anton (Elizabeth Laidlaw, Good Guy with a Gun, The Red Line), the owner’s silent aide, however, was unwelcoming though it was for a good cause – to treat his wound.

He nonetheless visits the room – much to his surprise, and seeks for something on the table, a retina-wrenching sight that is almost impossible to ignore – a packet of currencies. Of course, he is apprehended and Anton does not hesitate to dismiss him, but then the owner comes in and invites him to sit down with him and get to talk.

The owner is a very rich person but in his dying days Drayton is what he is called (Larry Yando Chicago Fire, 61st Street) – A nice name that resonates with the last known place called market Drayton in England where the last recorded sin eating took place, way back as late as 1893.

It is Rick’s naprdy and Rodya that he be alma gonna na gornogo OOR He invites Rick for lunch again. He hands out to Rick an opportunity that he can only dream of: Rick will be ‘gifted’ all his belongings after he has died.

There is one caveat however, Rick will need to have for dinner and finish every single bite, all to the last crumb, a meal that was prepared prior to his death and laid out on his corpse. Stunned by such a bizarre offer Rick takes some time to think about it, only to eventually give in to the temptation of putting all these hardships behind him and living a comfortable life he never imagined to have any time soon.

As it is a horror film, of course, everything has a price and Drayton’s generous proposal requires some sacrifice too. Something that entails Rick would sell his soul and have to cope with ramifications and repercussions of consuming another’s sins.

There are a few aspects that make this film quite unique. First, there’s the mileage that Denton gets from a budget that has to have been restrictively sized. He cleverly enlisted a number of lesser-known but talented supporting cast members, and the slant that Denton sought to drive his film towards included some heavy (and awfully gruesome) effects work, most of which was done well without the use of computers. Not to say that filming inside a public area in the city of Chicago entails charging registration fees ($250/day as per their portal in case you wonder).

The film’s pacing is intentional. Amazon and Blumhouse’s audience would likely even find that tiresome. Some of this comes from level of dialogue which I think is very interesting because of the television background of the cast, a similar industry where I believe all characters constantly shout at each other as if that’s the end of the world. Not so here, in fact, quite the opposite situation. Much to my relief, as we see Rick going about his boring business without a single person shouting nonsensically.

He’s a glum, sloucher-wannabe kind of fellow but Shim generates enough substance in him to ensure that a deeper rage is kept boiling and makes him interesting. He does take the film on his shoulders in front of the camera as he mirrors and transverses his character through the motions, and he does it quite impressively. So does the rest of the supporting ensemble cast, with what they have been given to work with by the script, even in instances where they are not as developed as Rick.

Curse of the Sin Eater is animated and comical which brings good reading and good visuals on screen. Outdoor urban location places will mostly be shot with a handheld kinetic camera and will feature cold grey and urban colours; indoor sequences would most likely still feature static or slnake pans with warmer red hues but this is not inviting; the tone of dread warmth never leaves other this ominous coldness.

And when the curse starts to set in with our main character, so did the colour of the walls of the sets, of the shots, of the scenes. It is those elements that reconstruct the frame and subtext of what appears and what is sensed in the picture and overall production.

As Rick succumbs to the mark of the curse and the ghastly visions multiply, he also feels the tenuous threads of reality severing within him and sets out on a frantic mission aimed at getting rid of the curse even at the expense of the riches he has been endowed with. This has been a common plot device in the past in films, but what may be seen as a worn out, one done well enough to maintain the viewer’s concentration on the other measures helped by well calibrated acting, sound design and Denton’s visuals.

Denton is not too fond of jump scares; in fact, some scenes even manage to become noteworthy – well, watch it and you shall know. There is hope at least that at least one person in the boardroom of one of the major streamers is understanding how ‘less is more’ applies to this kind of films, although the infelicitously generic movie title, though thematically appropriate, is unlikely to catch anyone’s attention.

Everyone who took part in the making of Curse of the Sin Eater, including its director Justin Denton and the entire cast of the film, comes from th either the TV entertainment industry or the MCU, which pretty much ruled them out of my search. Alright, I was in the process of looking for movies to watch, and quite accidentally came upon this one, I must say, I am however glad I did because it took me by surprise.

Curse of the Sin Eater review is about one more very useful finding and rare horror film, which was really good, well written, well acted, and well produced so if you are horror fan it is from the list of Must Watch movies – and is not most of you who come here? As for Denton, I have to say that I have to thank him because now I will know how to keep track of him and what for.

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