Such a frustrating disappointment

Powerful

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Fantastic!

Descendant starts in the 19th Century as Frederick Usher (Jeremy London) snaps, he beats his girlfriend Emily Hedgerow (Katherine Heigl), ties her to the bedposts & then proceeds to cut out her heart... Jump forward to the present where Ethan Poe (Jeremy London again) writes horror novels for a living & it helps that he happens to be a descendant of legendary horror author Edgar Allan Poe. Ethan is currently in the small town of Tennison attending a seminar about his illustrious ancestor whom he doesn't have particularly high opinion of, it's here that Ethan is introduced to Ann Hedgerow (Katherine Heigl again) by their mutual friend Lisa (Whitney Dylan), Ann has recently lost her Mother & has her Brother Keifer (Matt Farnsworth) stalking her so she is feeling a little vulnerable. Both Ann & Ethan are attracted to each other, a romance begins to blossom & Ann invites Ethan to stay at her house to finish off his latest novel. However the town is stunned by the discovery of a murdered prostitute named Camille Lane (Cheryl Dent), police officer Deputy John Burns (Nick Stabile), who just happens to be a personal friend of Ann's, is investigating & becomes suspicious of Ann's new house guest...Co-written, co-produced & co-directed by Kermit Christman along with Del Tenney who also executive produced I have to give Descendant some credit for trying something a bit different but in the end it doesn't quite work. The script by Christman & William Katt, who appears in the film, starts off with a bang as Emily has her heart cut out but as soon as you realise that Heigl reappears as Ann & London as Ethan you know exactly where the film is going to end up & if you don't I have no idea why because you should. Then there's the murders, for a start the killer is totally obvious & the film makes no attempt to try & fool the viewer with red-herrings or other suspects despite the fact that they aren't revealed until the end. Then there's the fact they aren't very good at killing people, out of their three victims two don't die straight away. Then there's the terrible climax where, amongst other things, the killer stops Ann from escaping in her car by blocking the road, OK fine. So Ann jumps out of her car & runs off into the nearby wood to try & escape, again not a problem. But then Ann stumbles across her Mother's dead body, for a start it wouldn't be perfectly preserved & secondly out of all the directions & places she could have run too she had to go straight to the point where her Mother was lying within an entire wood or forest or whatever it was, the chances of that happening are almost statistically impossible! There's a supernatural element that's never clarified although I just like to think Ethan was seeing things. On a positive note it's certainly different & kept me watching until it's end, the character's are decent but some of them felt very forced like Keifer who is there merely to be an aggressor, cause trouble & nothing else.Director's Tenny & Christman drop a few Poe references in throughout for eagle eyed viewers to spot like shots of a raven, someone being buried alive along with various mentions of his work. There's not much violence, the opening scene is quite strong but after that it's pretty tame with just a dead body & someone being impaled on a wooden pole.Technically Descendant is pretty good despite it's obvious low budget of about $650,000, it's well made & has some nice cinematography. The acting was OK & Heigl is a bit of a babe which makes it a bit easier to watch...Descendant has an interesting central idea that gets lost & ultimately goes nowhere. The murder mystery elements are severely lacking & the ending is so signposted & predictable it disappoints that the filmmakers didn't put a bit more effort & thought into it. I think it's worth a watch as it's different & I really wanted to like it because of that but in the end Descendant just doesn't come together in a satisfying manner.

This film remains true to the thriller/murder mystery genre. I think it does a fair job of it. But what makes this film different is its descent into the life of Poe at the same time. It touches themes that Poe touched in his wonderful tales of romantic horror and makes a true Poe fan smile time after time. This film is unique and follows a simple story line to its logical conclusion in an entertaining fashion for those who love Poe.The leads are good actors and "Ann" is lovely.I think anyone that has poured over the bloody pages of Poe's short stories surely will be entertained on two levels by this far too easily dismissed attempt, an attempt to do something more than just entertain us with a mystery murder story. It is a tale of madness, of love, of confusion and killings.

actually, it was pretty funny... in a "god, how the hell did this movie get made" kind of way. if you life making fun of movies... which i kinda do... go ahead and watch it... but if you're actually thinking "is this a good movie?" eff off.this movie sucked from the very beginning scene with the worst acting i've ever seen in any movie.... usually they get five minutes into it before you realize "this movie might suck".. but no, you know right off the bat. this movie talks about edgar allen poe... never tried to explain it though, to people who haven't memorized poe's life story... so i don't know if any of what was said is fact.this movie is about a writer "ethan poe" hookin up with his cousin "ann".... they're both descendants of edgar allan poe... or are they?!? apparently, people give a what their ancestors did. this guy ethan poe is actually ethan "usher", who is supposed to be descendants from the story "the house of usher" that was written by edgar allen poe. ann's brother shows up sometimes to try to rape her... ann's also being stalked, at one point in the movie, by three different people on the same street (seriously, three... they're like right behind her glaring at her and she doesn't even realize). the characters that are being murdered throughout, show up at the end to try to save the day.... but they can't. at the end, ann shoots ethan while he's trying to kill her best friend. of course, before she shoots him she has to scream out "nevermore!" this movie should be seen nevermore!

The Film must have been shot in a day,there are scenes where you can see the camera reflections and its red pointer,even the scenery's green light that blends with the actors!!!The plot and the lines are really awful without even the slightest inspiration(At least as a thriller genre movie).Everything that got to do with Poe in the movie,has a shallow and childish approach.The film is full of clise and no thrilling.If you want to watch a funny b-movie for a relaxing evening with friends then go for it you will enjoy it (As I Did) but there's no way to take this film seriously!