A group of American tourists are trapped in the city of Jerusalem during the start of the apocalypse in JeruZalem. Sarah (Danielle Jadelyn) travels with her friend Rachel (Yael Grobglas) to go for a vacation in Tel Aviv. On the way, they come across young anthropologist Kevin (Yon Tumarkin), who invites the two to join him in Jerusalem. However, as Yom Kippur starts, a biblical nightmare descends upon the city.
Directed by Doron and Yoav Paz, JeruZalem is one of the first horror films to come out of Israel, following other recent genre films, such as the 2013 thriller Big Bad Wolves. JeruZalem is portrayed as a found footage film, with the action being shot by Sarah's smartglass camera on her glasses. While this does come off as quite a bit gimmicky, including facial recognition being used on every new character, the film actually goes through the effort to explain why Sarah keeps wearing the device throughout the film.
There are some very obvious similarities between JeruZalem and the [REC] series, with the plot being essentially a found-footage zombie film, except that the threat can be better described as winged demons. JeruZalem doesn't delve too deeply into religious territory, even though the events are based on passages from the bible, including the fact that Jerusalem is apparently one of the three locations of gates to Hell. While found-footage has become a quite overused horror trope, JeruZalem shows that these types of films can still be done right.
★ ★ ★ ★ | LIKED IT
