Pretty Good

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

When a US soldier uses an ancient stone idol as a target for shooting practise, he releases the evil djinn that was imprisoned within. As his platoon carry out orders to keep a desert road under surveillance, the malevolent spirit summons a sand storm and infiltrates the group in the form of an Afghan woman, and one by one the men fall victim to its power.It might boast some impressive cinematography and a couple of fairly bloody effects, but with nary a decent scare during the whole film, a raft of stereotypical characters, dull dialogue, cheap-ass CGI effects, and an unexciting and uneventful plot that moves slower than a shifting dune, Red Sands is a dry and lifeless experience, just like the Afghanistani desert in which it is set.As with his first horror flick Dead Birds, director Alex Turner takes the atmospheric, slow-burn, psychological route for much of the running time, his djinn using each victim's sins against them to terrify before killing; but whereas Dead Birds managed to deliver a modicum of atmosphere and a few effective frights between the less interesting bits, Red Sands manages neither and, given the choice, I'd rather count every grain of sand in Afghanistan than sit through this dreary film again.

***SPOILERS*** We get the story straight from the horse's mouth in the only survivor of the US Army's combat unit Spc. Jeff Keller, Shane West, as he's being debriefed by his battalion commanding officer Lt. Col. Arson, J.K Simmons, Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan. The story Keller tells is so fantastic that it's suspected by Lt. Col. Simmons and those in the debriefing room that he had lost his mind in being out in the brutal Afghan sun, after making his way back to civilization, for the last three days.Sent out in the Afghan desert to heck out a secret El-Qeada and Taliban supply route Spc.Keller and a squad of US Army troopers lead my Sgt. Marcus Houston, Leonard Roberts, somehow got themselves lost and had their radio communication system damaged. It's later the we and the Army Rangers realize that this was the work of a Genie, or Dijnni in Arabic, that was released when one of the troops Chaud Davies, Brendan Miller,took target practice at an ancient monument smashing it to pieces. This in fact released the Genie that was to eventually turn the rangers on each other until they all did themselves in.The film "Red Sands" moves at a snails pace with the troopers slowly going wacko as they, without communication to the outside world, start to realize that they've got themselves lost in the desert. It's when they find this Afghan woman, Marcedes Manson, hidden inside a deserted house that things really start to pick up in the movie.***MAJOR SPOILER*** As it turns out the Afghan woman is the evil spirit, or Dijnni, that Cpl. Davies released when he destroyed the ancient monument and she, or it, would soon turns the screws on the unsuspecting US soldiers. It takes a while for the soldiers to realize what's happening but by the time they do it will be too late for them. The genie or Dijnni has been let out of the bottle and they only way it will get back inside is when all those responsible in letting it out are dead! And that by the way includes Spc.Keller who as we see when the movie ends is not who we, as well as Lt. Col. Simmons, think who he is!

Well. As a horror fan I was hoping for a fun flick. I love movies where some mystical being is hunting a group of people. Be it an animal, a medical experiment gone wrong or a vengeful ghost. This movie sets a nice mood. It takes place in Afghanistan and features a group of soldiers in a remote outpost, deep in the desert. But after a loooong while you start to wonder "when it's finally gonna happen". The group finds a young, local women and decides to take her hostage. We all know that there's something wrong with her and there are literally dozens of scenes that constantly remind us of that fact. Watch out BIG SPOILER ALERT - she's a freaking djinn! That's almost immediately established and I really don't understand the false suspense with her strange shadow, stretching arms and stuff. She finally makes her move in like 15 last minutes of the film, revealing her true self but she really should have done it like 40 minutes ago. That would make this movie better.

In the Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, the Staff Sergeant Marcus Howston (Leonard Roberts) is assigned to stay temporary based in the desert nearby Kabul with six other soldiers guarding a road that they can not see from Al Qaeda. While patrolling the desert, they find a millenary temple with a stone carved idol; their translator Gregory Wilcox (Callum Blue) explains that worshippers come to that place to idolize Djinn, a race that have hatred for humans and was made by Allah from the smokeless flame in the beginning of the times in accordance with the Islam and pre-Islamic Arabian folklore. One racist soldier shots the statue that falls apart, unleashing a supernatural force. They camp in an abandoned house and during a sand storm, a Muslim woman (Mercedes Masöhn) comes out of the blue. Sooner they find that their truck was sabotaged and their communication broke down. The group stranded in the middle of nowhere gets mad and they are consumed by their sins and guilty."Red Sands" is a claustrophobic and tense psychological horror movie, with a great surrealistic story that can be interpreted as a madness process of a group of soldiers stranded in a place that they do not understand the culture and the language. There are many racist and stupid dialogs and situations, like when the sexist soldier shots an archaeological site, but what else could the viewer expect from invaders under stress? The distributor Sony of Brazil shows a total lake of respect with the Brazilian consumers, releasing a shameful DVD without subtitles in Portuguese. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Força Maligna" ("Malign Force")