The Veil

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In The Veil, Sarah Hope (American Horror Story’s Lily Rabe) is the last survivor of a cult. Documentary filmmaker Maggie Price (Jessica Alba) comes across something that hints at documented footage that was never revealed. Along the way, secrets, demons, and the monsters within will all be unleashed when the documentary crew takes Sarah back to the place where everything happened. Lily Rabe is a talented actress and does a pretty good job as the character of Sarah. She manages to come off as distant, aloof, and clearly haunted by the events of her past. Even though Jessica Alba still seems to barely be able to say her lines, she does have enough charm here to make her character somewhat likable, and she’s clearly trying. By far, the standout performer here is Thomas Jane, bringing just the right amount of charisma needed to play the film’s villainous Jim Jones-like cult leader. Unfortunately, this movie does suffer from some of the most annoying cliches plaguing modern horror movies. Firstly, most of the main characters are unlikable and forgettable. Hell, one of the characters, named Ed, disappears early on in the movie, and I was just like who the fuck is Ed? Literally five minutes after I was told their names, I’d pretty much forgotten them. So, yeah, that just about says everything that you need to know about the characters in the movie. The second problem this movie shares in common with all of the other modern horror films is the use of lazy, unnecessary jump scares. However, the twenty minutes or so are actually really good, but they don’t quite make up for the rest of the movie’s boring, plodding pace. Overall, a couple of good performances, and a decent climax just aren’t enough to save this movie. 

4 / 10