The Void
2016
Cave Painting Pictures / JoBro Productions & Film Finance : Screen Media Films / Signature Entertainment
3.5 / 10
I had read articles where they were touting a kind of 1980's horror film style resurrection. Now being a horror fan and loving the 1980's films of my youth I have to say that my interest was well and truly hyped up with anticipation. I'd already been quietly surprised by 2014's It Follows, which was okay and had a definite John Carpenter feel at times, though it wasn't as strong as any of Carpenter's films. So when I had the chance to view this film I jumped at the chance. Which was a mistake!
This should have a been a much better film and it even had the possibility of being a masterpiece... shame everything went wrong with it.
The story is of a Doctor who is trying to cheat death by making a deal, not with the devil, but with the Lovecraftian Old Ones, and there are tentacles and monsters aplenty.
The thing about the film is that by and large, it's boring and way too shouty, with very little characterisation and even though the actors do their best I just couldn't empathise with any of them (which is really strange as we do actually share the same driving force).
I could also understand why the article had said the new set of horror movies felt like 1980's because I could count four, possibly five, film references.
Hellraiser: The good Doctor Richard Powell, played well by, though not as menacingly as he should have been, Kenneth Welsh was a cross between Uncle Larry and Pinhead.
The Keep: Here it's the "Anti-God" symbolism and the atmosphere of the "Evil" symbol. In the case of The Keep, it's the nickel crosses which are holding something back. In the case of The Void, it's the... Triangle! We all know what a cross symbolises so that's already in our subconscious mind to be exploited. I know the triangle is meant to represent a pyramid but as a symbol of evil, it doesn't work... I never thought Pythagoras was evil, though I never did love mathematics. Then when we get to the scene where our hero's come across a triangle painted on a door as a warning and the tough guy of the pack has a meltdown, the first thought in my head was, "Run Away they have triangles."
The Thing: The special effects are very reminiscent of John Carpenter's remake, especially where the creature is breaking free of its human host, though her mouth. It had me thinking of the spider head scene in the thing.
Assault On Precinct 13 and/or Prince Of Darkness: There are scenes where groups of the Followers are standing outside the hospital to keep the people captive inside. They way this is filmed is very evocative of these two Carpenter films, though not as menacing are as scary. I put this down to the Followers looking like refugees from a KKK meeting, as they are dressed in white robes with one glaringly obvious difference, a black triangle on the front of their masks. I'm sorry, but as I said before a triangle just doesn't cut it as being eerie enough to invoke fear.
The major thing which the above movies have is the atmosphere and I'm sorry to say that's one of the main ingredient's missing in The Void. With Carpenter, the atmosphere was created with lighting and music, which he himself composed. There's very little music in The Void and no atmospherical lighting at all.
The other is Style, John Carpenter is a master of style and Michael Mann gave it a good try in The Keep. But, in The Void, there's no style or flair whatsoever. The Directors, Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski, just go from scene to scene.
With these elements missing, the movie feels tedious as the viewer isn't drawn into the story, there are no goosebumps forming on the backs of their arms and no shivers down the spine. I found my attention drifting and I looked away from the screen often.
I would recommend watching the five other films over this one as they are all superior to The Void.
No comments:
Post a Comment