The Void

 

Today we are going to talk about the 2016 movie The Void.

This is an interesting entry in the world of horror movies. The Void is written and directed by Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski who are both very talented people in a variety of fields. This is not their first time directing, but the majority of their IMDB entries comes from the effects side of movie making. This shows in a good way as almost none of the effects are digital.

Despite being low budget, they stretch the money a long way. The SFX budget was only about $82.000 but I can't find the overall cost anywhere. Despite this, the movie stars actual actors like Aaron Poole, Kenneth Walsh, Daniel Fathers, Kathleen Munroe and Ellen Wong. This makes the movie a great deal better than many of its class as the acting sells the horror in a way many other low budget movies fail at.

So what is the movie all about? In a nutshell, a group of people are trapped in an old clinic that's about to be shut down after a fire. This includes a cop, a couple of nurses, a doctor and a handful of civilians. Trapping them inside is a sinister cult wearing white robes with a black triangle over their faces. Many bad, gory things happens, the end.

The Void could and should be counted as a Lovecraftian movie, even though it is an original work. Well, sort of original. We'll get to that. It is not an adaptation of Lovecraft like Color out of Space or Reanimator, but a standalone work.

So why isn't it completely original? Take Carpenter's Prince of Darkness, and add a bit of The Thing, The Beyond, and the zombie movie(not that there are any zombies, but some of the tropes are abundant) of your choice. Bake for 90 minutes and you get The Void. It's not that they are ripping off anything as such, it is more that you can see strong influences throughout. Especially the influence of Prince of Darkness is felt from start to finish. That said, it is absolutely original and on top of that, The Void is pretty good.

The beginning is again the weakest part and there are a couple of scenes that makes little sense but it quickly gets better. There is one scene that really needed an epilepsy warning, so beware if you are sensitive to flashing lights. Most of the gore and monster scenes are obfuscated by movement, flashing lights or darkness, but you get to see enough. Some of the character decisions are pretty dumb, but not to a level that really bothered me.

What did bother me is the almost video game levels of healing the main character exhibits. No spoilers, but I suspect he drank a healing potion off camera...

Overall, The Void was a good time. It's not on par with the films I've written about recently, like Oculus, Color out of Space, Suspiria and Underwater, but it isn't far behind. It had the feel of a late 80's or early 90's horror movie, but made with modern equipment. The camera work, set design, sound work etc are very good. I can't really complain about anything except the previously mentioned scenes, but they didn't reinvent the wheel. Most things are predictable if you know your horror.

Would I recommend it? Yes, to horror enthusiasts, but not the general public unless it's Halloween. The overall atmosphere is excellent and the actors are genuinely good, but The Void is the kind of middle of the road horror that fans can appreciate and other groan at.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then have a great and safe week!