Jeruzalem

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• Israel • 2015 • 94m •

• Directed by: Doron Paz, Yoav Paz. • Starring: Yael Grobglas, Yon Tumarkin, Danielle Jadelyn, Tom Graziani, Sarel Piterman, Howard Rypp, Ami Smolartchik, Yoav Koresh, Ori Zaltzman, Fares Hananya, Itsko Yampulski, Mel Rosenberg, Danny Zahavi..

The American and best friends Rachel Klein and Sarah Pullman decide to travel to Tel Aviv to have fun. In the flight, they meet Kevin Reed that invites them to go to Jerusalem. They accept the invitation and they check in the hostel of the local Omar. Sarah and Rachel date Kevin and Omar respectively and they go to a nightclub together. When they return to the hostel, they find that Jerusalem is under siege of the army and curfew and no one can leave the place that is under attack of demons.

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1:43

Review:

"There are three gates to hell. One in the desert, one in the ocean and one in Jerusalem"

Look at the design of the title with the big red central "Z", you expect this to be some sort of "World War Z". Right? What a disappointing film this was eventually. Pure horror. And I'm not talking about the content, but about the entire movie. The only thing in this film that got me excited, were the google glasses. If this electronic gadget works as demonstrated here (apparently it's no longer available), I certainly would love to have one. It looked really cool. The face recognition. The voice activated commands to initiate phone calls, play music and to start a GPS so you can orientate yourself. The robustness of these glasses was also demonstrated here. The girl who got the glasses as a gift from her father, seemed to be quite a labile and unstable girl. But despite falling down some stairs, smacking against the ground out of a hammock and slamming down with a bicycle, the glasses still functioned. After an error message it worked like a charm.

As for the rest, this found footage movie isn't particularly groundbreaking or original. I'll never put this type of movie on my list of favorite genres anyway. Admit it. The principle has been exploited already infinite times since the making of "The Blair Witch project". Occasionally you come across one that's worth to watch in between. But the vast majority are none the less mostly movies with shortcomings on a large scale. Usually the story isn't very original or the performances are shockingly bad. The story-line in "Jeruzalem" gives you the feeling that it could be interesting. The gimmick of the Google glasses gives the film a pleasant and fresh touch. But the moment the apocalypse begins, we are treated to zombie situations that feel as historic as the tourist sites in Jerusalem.

There appear to be quite a few gates to hell in our world (as said in the beginning of the movie). Turns out there's one in Jerusalem where our two excited, party girls Sarah (Danielle Jadelyn) and Rachel (Yael Grobglas) accidentally end up. And this thanks to an amateur archaeologist Kevin (Yon Tumarkin) who the two cooing lovebirds meet on the plane. He can persuade them to accompany him to Jerusalem instead of exploring the nightlife of Tel Aviv. What he wants to do in Jerusalem isn't revealed by this sly fox. If he had come clean about it from the outset and told those two gals that he's interested in the recurring phenomenon of zombies, they would have made a different decision probably. So once again it's proved that it's not really smart to let your hormones make the decisions.

It takes a while before hell breaks loose. The city center is hermetically sealed by closing all the gates (apparently these are all magical gates since they are able to stop dangerous looking giants). From that moment on you'll get a nauseating film accompanied by lots of hysterical screaming. Scares are provided by utilizing suddenly emerging zombies (and I have to admit, they look creepy) and fluttering demons.

However, I could only discover one really exciting situation. This took place in a mental institution where victims of the "Jerusalem syndrome" were being locked up. Unfortunately Sarah was possessed by the annoying habit of staring at her companions all the time, instead of focusing on the demonic creatures. This suppressed the horror level quite a bit. It felt as if the content of the movie was for most part limited to just some touristic sightseeing. Add to that the sometimes contrived and primitive acting and you'll come to the conclusion that it's far from being as brilliant as "World War Z" for example.

Review by Peter Pluymers from the Internet Movie Database.