Reviewed by Sean McNulty

When I first heard of the the movie Gnomes, I was a tad bit confused. The concept of gnomes being vengeful killers has never crossed my mind before. The only time I've seen gnomes is in old ladies' yards, and then they're usually fishing or catching butterflies, not eating people's faces. This is one of the factors that makes Gnomes such a great film, an original premise.

There is a unique feel about the setting that I can't really explain. In a nut shell, it makes me think of autumn. Maybe it's the mix of the brown trees, yellow skies, and red blood... but it feels like this movie takes place in the fall. Personally, I think that increases the creep factor. I've always found autumn a much more eerie setting than summer. But that's not the point. The point is, the style used to portray the scenery works well with this movie, even the clashing green. The barn is another strong point in the setting. Barns are scary.



Yeah, I really like that. There's not much more I can say about the setting and scenery. It looks good, it feels creepy, and it just works really well with this movie.

Moving onto the characters. I'll start with Sarah. She seems to be focused on the most in this movie. The story around her seems rather... out of place. I'm not saying it's bad, but at first glance, it seems useless. Do we really need to know that her mom beats her and her dad was shot in the back of the head? Well... yes, yes we do. It provides depth to the film, and with good purpose. Think about it, would you have enoyed it as much if you didn't know these things about Sarah? But enough rhetorical questions, the whole situation with the father and all makes this movie really interesting, and even more frightening. Too bad the voice actor for Sarah was rather monotone. Henry's voice acting was done better. Henry may not have the creepy background story like Sarah, but he fills the role of protective male boy who guards female... girl. The old man, ah yes. Old people are creepy, everybody hates and loves old people. This old man is no different. His chilling tale of the ordeal with the gnomes and his poor dog, and the description of the gnomes who live in the woods was a nice touch, and again, spiced up the creepify as well as provide much required information.

Alas, we come to my heroes. The gnomes! The face of a gnome is only shown once, and boy does that make things suspenseful. Seeing the tips of their pointy hats scurry by behind people and between their legs is pure gold, horrifying to the max. It makes the appearance of the gnome a much greater payoff. A lot of horror movies make the mistake of showing you the monster way too often, but Gnomes knows what it's doing. The portrayal of these little demons is perfect.

Now, the music. The music is absolutely wonderful and enticing. I can't really say much besides that it fit the movie well and was just... just perfect. It fit what happened on screen and made the movie so much more enjoyable. The credit music had a nice conluding feel to it as well, and wow... it's just perfect... yeah. Specifically, the scene where the family is on their way to the camp and it shows the sun. At the moment the main part of the music kicks in, and it just sends something into you that make you see the scene in a whole different manner. Very nice.

My only complaint with this film is the abundance of blackness. There are various points in this film where it sits at nothing for a bit too long. Don't get me wrong now, it provides much needed suspense... but it just seems a bit too long. There are also a lot of close up face shots, which is not always a good thing, especially with default actors. Yet still, in the end, you look past these mild discomforts you had while watching the film and look at the picture as a whole, and my god is it great.

9/10