The Sci-fi channel produces and pick ups so many films per year to air on the channel that it’s hard for one to actually sit down and watch them all. Most people see one or two and then don’t bother anymore because the films are far from being anything great. However every once in a while we get a decent film that the channel will put on the air and Sands of Oblivion is one of those rare films.
Sands of Oblivion is about the set that Cecil B Demille constructed for his film The Ten Commandments. But when he finished the film he ordered his crew to bury the set in the desert in which they shot the film in. Flash forward to the present. And the set has been dug up. There are three groups of people who are responsible however. A team of students and their teacher Alice Carter, Alice’s soon to be ex-husband Jesse, and a grandfather and grandson duo looking for a buried time capsule that the grandfather had buried while on the set of Demille’s film. However they all unearth a evil secret from the past that is connected to a prop on Demille’s movie that is said to hold an ancient evil force. This force is once again unleashed and begin killing anyone it can get it hands on. Now it’s up the the crew to stop this evil and put it to rest once more.
While this is probably one of the better films that has appeared on the Sci-fi channel it is by no means a great movie. The script for the film is not the best, but it holds it’s own. I was not really a big fan of the dialogue, but the story did move along pretty well. The films acting is nothing special some of the performances were alright but most were lacking in greatness of any kind. I couldn’t really get into Adam Baldwin performance in the film. I felt as if he himself didn’t really care much for the script and just looked at this film like it was another pay check. Morena Baccarin, Victor Webster and Oscar award winning actor George Kennedy gave the best performances they could, but they were not that memorable by any standards. The rest of the cast was so-so, some were alright, but most were not that great and I felt that this wasn’t a movie that the majority of the cast really put one hundred percent into. It’s a shame because the idea behind this movie is actually a good one, but it all seemed rushed to me, in what could of been a better film if more time and money were put into it.
Overall, Sands of Oblivion is an aright film, but it has it’s ups and it’s downs. The production value is actually pretty decent for a film that was produced by the Sci-fi channel, and the visual effects are not half bad either. If you enjoy those scary Saturday night movies on the Sci-fi channel then theirs no doubt in my mind that you’ll agree that Sands of Oblivion is one of the better productions to date. Personally it’s not my kind of film and although the storyline is original; how many evil Egyptian pharaohs movies do we really need. So while the story may be a new concept, the monster in the film is far from original.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
