This goes by two different titles the very first title is Gallows Hill, it was changed to the name The Damned, for its distribution. This plays on the idea of possession. These movies seem to be running rampant this day and age. This one has a family who ends up in a storm. Their car is turned over because of a flash flood, they end up going to little Motel, where an old man lives. The old man almost refuses to let them in but then he realizes they are a family. He lets them in. What they discover is a little girl locked up in a basement, chained and bolted inside a room. They take it upon themselves to free the little girl unbeknownst to them the little girl has a secret. The old man has a secret and the place has a secret.

This is an interesting possession horror film with great little spooked moments, that play with the viewer's mind. This is a good film to watch in the dark with no lights and the television volume way up so that you can experience all the ultimate spooky reality. Now with that said it's not meant to mean a fantastic film because it's not. This plays out like a direct to video b-grade horror film.

The movie takes place in Columbia. Your main character is David. He is a widow and about to remarry. He comes to Columbia to collect his daughter who is staying with her aunt. David wants his daughter at his marriage. David's daughter does not like his new main squeeze basically stating all she is, is a money hungry whore.

The character of David is played by who I have always thought was an underrated actor and often overlooked and always seems to capture his characters in vivid ways and displays them emotionally accurate, Peter Facinelli. I first got wind of his amazing acting talent in the wonderful TV film The Price of Love (1995). He is most famous for the character of Dr. Cullen in the Twilight film series.

A new watch for me of GALLOWS HILL (2013, aka THE DAMNED, aka HOUSE ON GALLOWS HILL), a tale of demonic possession with the novelty of being filmed on location in Bogota, Colombia. The story sees an American and his fiancee travelling cross-country with some family members and friends only to get caught out by flooding and forced to take a rural route. After a car accident the group stay at a closed hotel inhabited by an old man who keeps a young girl chained up in his basement. Wrongly believing him to be a paedophile, they free the girl only to get a nasty surprise...

Despite the novelty of the South American filming location this is another stock and routine story with dark and dreary cinematography; most of it is filmed in the dark so the exoticism is wasted. It's one of those stories with paper-thin characters and familiar actors (Peter Facinelli, Sophia Myles) wasted in predictable 'demon' scenes of overacting and possession. Some gore and horror along the way, but I found it all very passe and unappealing, not helped by the tiny scale and low budget of the production.

Starting a few millenniums back, science; i.e., facts, began a battle with religion; i.e., superstition. Those who believe in the supernatural, miracles, extra-terrestials, etc., are unaware science has won. As such horror and sci-fi movies, long ago limited to genre, are measurable by HOW it's done, with limitations on what CAN is done. This film (on Netflix as GALLOWS HILL) is creative on the CAN as it's stars are not lost or partying kids or paranormal sleuths. The creativity on character relations is done with useful effect. Its setting is not the USA and the film usefully employs the language barrier. Okay, it is stuck inside a house and borrows some gimmicks. The actors, photography, dialog and editing are professional. Restraint is employed regarding gratuitous nudity and special effects and the opening and closing "narrative" is minimal enough to avoid the preachy manure many films of this budget use. In sum, in relation to the tons of horror films out there, this one is pretty good. The makers might think what I'm going to say is faint praise: GALLOWS HILL, a/k/a THE DAMNED, didn't make me feel like an idiot for watching it until the end. For a grouch like me, that's praise indeed.