The Void starts with a
bang. It instantly sets up a few mysteries and it doesn’t believe in not
showing its hand. Surprisingly this works out pretty well. By establishing the
eldritch horror off the bat, it creates stakes, it ups the tension, it deepens
the mystery, and it creates a paranoid atmosphere.
A police officer, a nurse, a high school intern, a knocked
up teenager, her grandfather, a drug addict, and a couple of grizzled hunters
become trapped within a remote hospital, surrounded by a murderous cult and the
semi-undead monstrosities they’ve summoned from, you guessed it, le void. It
reminds me immediately of The Mist, by Stephen King. But one of the things this
movie is good at doing is subverting expectations. While we do spend time
trying to figure out what is going on and tensions rising between the
characters, the movie does not dwell solely in that paranoid headspace. It
moves into action sequences and revels in body horror.
One thing is for sure, the movie makes the most out of its
run time.
The main characters are very likable and well-acted. The
characters are slightly trope-y, but it works for the Twilight Zone-style scenario. It's great to see these actors brush against each
other and to revel in their reactions their new, insane circumstances. The main
character, Officer Carter (Aaron Poole), is instantly likable. He’s a Sheriff
Brody archetype, he’s unprepared and under-qualified to handle what is going
on, but when the shit hits the fan, he springs into action. Allison (Kathleen
Munroe), the no-nonsense nurse gets great moments of character development and nauseating
dread, and the chemistry between her and Poole is palpable. Finally, Kenneth
Welsh blows away the competition as the kindly Dr. Powel.
There is only one big problem with the film. The plot
is…difficult to follow. This works in some cases. The film is channeling cosmic
horror right up until the finale, so forcing us to fill in the blanks about the
cult and the monsters is a good idea in my mind. However, there are pieces of
the plot pertaining to character development, which feel like they are either
missing or incomplete. The film could have added five minutes of dialogue to
make some of these dynamics and backstories more obvious. There’s a moment
where we see some of the tragic backstories for one of the grizzled hunters, and
while you feel the emotion of the scene, the “how?” and “why?” are missing,
leaving what should be a powerful revelation confusing at best.
I’ve read that the movie was initially much longer and a
ton of content was cut out for the release, which explains why these plot points
feel less developed in aspects than others. My only other complaint would be
that, when compared to earlier monsters, the big bad is rather…tame. The
tension remains throughout, but the grotesque factor was already used up by
this point, and plot details demand that one of the monsters be slightly more humanoid
than everything else so far.
But if the movie accomplishes anything, is that it is
scary. Besides talking a lot about parenthood, the movie is about death, the
ultimate void. And it perfectly replicates the inability of the human mind to
truly comprehend death’s existence. It leaves you wanting more and it somehow
tosses subtlety to the wind at the same time, which is an accomplishment worth
noting.
I don’t know why the score is so low on IMDB and Rotten
Tomatoes, but I would highly watching this film at least. You might find it
difficult to follow, but I guarantee you will get something out of it. It’s a
fantastic journey through paralyzing nightmare and well-made homage. The film manages
to make the over the top body horror as equally tense as a c-section, and that
shows the director knows how to make horror.
It was Great! The Void was directed and written by Jeremy Gillespie and Steven
Kostanski. You can watch it on Netflix and you can buy it on YouTube. It is
included with Shudder on Amazon.
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