Cruel Peter-- My take on the movie with spoilers!

Cruel Peter is the darkest movie you will ever see. And no, it isn't because there are a lot of gory, disturbing scenes. It's because the director forgot to hire a lighting crew.

The biggest problem with the movie is that most of the scenes are shot at night and you have to push your head forward, stare at the scenes to understand what is happening. Of course, peering, or sitting right in front of the screen isn't going to help, but habitually, you will end up doing before realizing all the scenes are badly shot without light.

I get that some moviemakers use this trick to conceal the low-budget special effects, but instead of simply dimming the lights, the lights are completely off here. How are the characters even seeing in the dark, you wonder.

The story begins in 1908, Messina Italy. Peter is a delinquent who relishes in hurting people and small animals.

When he goes after a boy’s dog, the boy decides he’s had enough of Peter’s cruelty and needs to be taught a lesson. His idea of punishment is wearing a sack on his head, bumping Peter’s head with a shovel, and burying him, just like Peter had buried his dog.

More than a century later, a father, Norman, is moping over the mistakes he made in his last restoration assignment. His deaf daughter, Bianca, is still grieving over the death of her mother.

Norman’s friend advises him to go to Italy to restore a cemetery. Bianca’s school arrangements are also made. Once there, it isn't long before Norman immerses himself in his work. Bianca is accepted at school, but she still maintains distance from her father, probably because she blames him for her mother's death as they were working on the same assignment when she meets with an accident.

Bianca also indulges in dark arts and tries to contact her mother using a glass ball with symbols on it, one of the rare artefacts her father probably found and let her use it. She keeps rotating the ball but receives no reply at first. Finally, she receives a Yes, and whoever she has contacted tells her it is "Mum".

Did Bianca call her mother Mum?

Because based on all the horror movies where spirits are summoned, the ghost is never who they say they are. Bianca is thrilled thinking it is her mother. She also develops a friendship with a woman roaming around the woods, when Bianca's father fails to pick her up from school.

What is Norman up to that has kept him so busy? He has found Peter's burial site and a box of his things like his switchblade and other odd items. The very next day, Norman finds the box is missing. The police officer who shows up has very little interest in something old and useless being stolen.

Norman keeps seeing a woman in a black dress roaming around the cemetery. He tries to follow her but loses her.

Meanwhile, Bianca gets possessed by Peter and begins to act strange and violent. Norman, at first believes Bianca is only acting out. When she attacks Norman's colleague and her aunt, Bianca's evil nature is subdued by an incantation recited by the aunt.

Norman bursts into the room, picks up his daughter and leaves. He doesn't believe his daughter is possessed, but sure enough, that night when he is putting her to bed, she speaks and jumps off the balcony.

The woman in a black veil who keeps roaming the woods takes Bianca with her while Norman falls and hurts himself. Or something like that. As mentioned before, the scenes are so dark you can barely make out anything.

Norman awakens and puts together his research on Peter. On the night he was buried, an earthquake had hit the city. The neighbor's son gets cold feet, realizing he may not be as cruel as Peter and should go save him. After the earthquake, his brother goes in search for him, but can't find him.

Peter's mother grows anxious when her son doesn't return. She knows Peter killed her husband but doesn't mind, because she is actually as cruel as Peter. Runs in the blood, I guess.

Her solution to find her son is slitting the housekeeper’s throat, the very woman in the black dress Norman sees in the cemetery. The mother uses a beetle and somehow the ritual works and Peter’s voice is revealed through the housekeeper.

But it is too late as Peter and the boy who put him there is buried under the rubble caused by the earthquake.

Norman gets this information from the neighbor boy’s son who is old. He finally asks his colleague’s aunt to intervene. She starts the exorcism process and tells Norman that he needs to find Peter’s remains and cremate them.

But the aunt’s rituals doesn’t go as planned. In fact, she is horrified when Peter’s mother shows up outside the house. She tells her niece and Norman to leave and cremate Peter.

For some reason, she stays behind. Her ritual had stopped the spirit from entering, and even when she finds out the spirit has still entered and her prayer has failed, she could have just gone with her niece and said a protection prayer to keep them all safe.

Instead, she sacrifices herself. Will the spirit stop after beheading her? Did the spirit just want a head and couldn’t have easily placed herself inside the car and killed Norman and his friend?

Turns out, the spirit doesn’t follow them. And the aunt was probably just done with the whole evil spirits thing and wanted out.

On the other side, the spirit had turned Bianca into Peter and kept her tied up on a platform.

Norman finds Peter’s remains and burns them. Bianca screams and turns into herself.

All is now well. Norman’s previous plan to go back to the US is scrapped and he remains in Italy.

However, at school, Bianca is confronted with evil again and we see a scene of her being submerged into dark liquid and Peter emerging. She opens her eyes and they are black.

These kinds of movies always make me question one thing, can evil never be defeated? Peter was put to rest, so how did he still come back?

I like movies with reason. If the ritual hadn’t worked due to a mistake made in the process, that would have made sense. After all, the aunt had died, so she couldn’t have given her expertise. Why not show Norman screwed up and hadn’t destroyed Peter after all?

This is a movie that could have benefited with better lighting. Maybe an important scene was missed in the dark. Seriously, at one point the screen is black and something is going on but as a viewer, you aren’t granted access to it.

Only the director knows what is going on.

Scare scale: 1.5/5