Gorenos- My take on the movie with spoilers!

PLOT SUMMARY: On his eighteenth birthday, Miles discovers he's been marked for death by an evil entity known as the Gorenos. It isn't long before he also finds out that someone has sacrificed his soul to the Gorenos on purpose. 

At first glance, Gorenos appears to be a satire of slasher movies. The opening scene has two friends watching a horror movie, discussing the plot holes and dishing out opinions on how modern movies could be a lot better.

Doesn’t everyone think that nowadays? Yes, most horror movies suffer from a really seedy plot, cliched jump scares and atrocious characters you don’t care about at all. In fact, slasher movies are personally something I avoid, only because the characters are so mean and superficial, I end up not sympathizing with them at all.

As the two characters in the movie point out: creating believable and likeable characters are vital for slasher movies to actually work.

Gorenos is a mixture of slasher and paranormal. There is a demon haunting Miles, but we are never shown even a shadow of what Gorenos looks like. He’s just a demon that appears when a deal is made.

GORENOS Movie Plot

Basically, Miles is about to turn eighteen and suddenly, inexplicable things begin to happen. And right before his birthday, a strange mark appears behind his neck. He is, unfortunately, marked for death.

That is not all, however. Miles’ friends seemed to be targeted by the strange happenings as well and it all occurs when Miles is asleep.

So his solution: Not to sleep. Eventually, the poor guy passes out due to sleep deprivation and ends up having vivid nightmares. By the time he awakes, one of his friends is dead.

As with all horror movies, Miles’ family doesn’t believe him and as his friend jokingly points out, this is a serious case of child neglect.

That is something I’ve noticed too. High school kids in slasher movies have terrible families who not only don’t believe that they are being mentally tortured and threatened via emails and text but knowing that there is a killer on the loose, do absolutely nothing to safeguard their children. Not even a casual: “Be home before dark” or “How about you enrol in some self-defence classes because we can’t be there to protect you all the time and (conveniently) the police in this town are inept at catching a killer?”

But the OS moment is still to come. The OS is the “Oh shit!” moment in the movie that reveals why the demon Gorenos is really after Miles. Apparently, when Miles’ brother was sixteen and got in an accident with his girlfriend, she had been left brain dead. Desperate to have her back, Keenan summons the Gorenos and offers him his brother’s soul, when he turns eighteen.

This doesn’t explain why the Gorenos waited that long, but apparently, demons have their own rules.

Anyway, the only way Gorenos will leave Miles alone and all the people he has associated with is if he kills the person who was supposed to die and the one who summons it.

GORENOS Ending Explained with Spoilers! 

Poor Miles is in a fix. His friends and his own life hangs in the balance. Gorenos is evidently not going straight for Miles but his friends for reasons known to him. On the other hand, can Miles really kill his own brother to be rid of the demon once and for all?

The climax was very neatly wrapped up and unfortunately, felt a little bit of a cheat- a deus ex machina.

Keenan’s girlfriend, Nia, the one who was supposed to die all those years ago, develops a guilty conscience and when Miles informs her that he has to kill her, the hero that has awakened itself inside her, agrees to die. Just like that. There’s no conflict, no nothing. She doesn’t want to discuss it with her family or plead with Miles to find another way. She is ready to die for Miles.

Keenan on the other hand isn’t going down that easy. He attacks his little brother and it is when Miles is unconscious, Nia plunges a knife into her heart and kills herself. Aghast that the love of his life is no more, Keenan stabs himself as well.

Miles wakes up to life, devoid of his ragging brother and the evil Gorenos.

Apart from the swift ending, the movie actually wasn’t that bad and the conflict was actually thrilling. The characters, too, were believable. People would act that way in that given situation, and that was what made the proceedings, gripping.

Scare Scale: 3/5