The Seasoning House

All over the world, young girls are forced into prostitution. Police and politicians say they are trying to solve this big problem, but of course many of themselves pay for sex. So how do you solve this ? You can´t, not completely. Thankfully some girls manage to get out, while others die or end up as drug addicts. It´s a cruel world we live in, and even if things are not looking good for girls stuck in prostitution, i still feel we need to have some kind of hope left. The Seasoning House is a psychological thriller, set in the year 1996, where Balkan soldiers kidnap young girls to rape them, and let them be prostitutes to other men. With such a heavy subject, does this story bring the pieces together into a solid story, or is this a big mess ?

As a young girl, Angel ( Rosie Day ) was kidnapped by millitary. She is taken to a whore house, where the leader Viktor ( Kaevin Howarth ) place her as a maid, to help him drug the girls and prepare them for sex. Viktor´s companion Dimitri ( David Lemberg ) make sure Angel do her job, otherwise she will be punished. Each day that goes by, Angel loose her knowledge of what is happening in the outside world, she is a slave with no future. One day she finds out that one of the girls, Violeta ( Anna Walton ), understand that Angel is deaf. They begin a friendship that is forbidden, but somehow Angel realise she might have a reason now to go on living. What seemed to be impossible, with no hope, is suddenly giving these girls something to belive in.

If you can´t see young women being treated like trash, i suggest you don´t watch The Seasoning House. This is a brutal portrait about how bad these girls are forced to be sex slaves, and have nothing to say against their owners. Everything may not be realistic, but some scenes affect you with so much tragedy going on. The acting from the young girls are good, it must have been hard playing a character with so much sadness and fear. The scenes at the whore house, where all girls are drugged and locked up are well made, and effective. Director Paul Hyett is mostly known working as a special makeup effects designer on movies like The Descent, Eden Lake and Doomsday. The Seasoning House is his first debut as an director, and he have a talent for this genre. In some ways you feel there are horror influences here, but not so deep that it becomes cliché. Remember i talked about the young girls acting ? The adult actors does not deliver as strong performances, like leading actress Rosie Day, her innocent look with her expression of being molested is disturbing. The Seasoning House is a very emotional horror/ thríller, that will make you sad. There may be some flaws, but overall i think this is important to see, to get a glimpse in the world of forced illegal prostution. There are some problems, but considering how deep this is and disturbing, i still feel that the message is needed. The Seasoning House is out on dvd and blu ray in the UK, no release date known for Sweden so far. But order your copy, this is a movie you will not forget.

Rating: DDD