Angel is taken to the dingiest of filthy brothels imaginable and watches other young women forced into prostitution with military men who act like boys. She's saved from that level of horror when Viktor (Kevin Howarth, Gallowwalkers), the pimp of the place, takes a shine to her and keeps her for himself.
However, she's still forced to work there — just in another capacity. She moves from room to room, "prepping" the girls by applying smears of lipstick and administering hits of smack. In an unofficial capacity, Angel also moves room to room by traversing the insides of the walls — a covert hobby that comes in handy when it comes time to escape and/or take revenge … or at least attempt such a thing.
In her film debut, Day is near-remarkable in a silent performance, but The Seasoning House marks another first: makeup artist Paul Hyett as director. He proves more than capable of handling future films, wringing some serious tension from this affecting one.
His main problem is that of many: pacing. It's not that the film needs to move like lightning — in fact, I rather appreciated its simmering approach. But that can get old when repetition sets in. How many injection scenes do we really need? Not as many as we get. —Rod Lott
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