User Reviews

While I don't like open rip-offs and remakes of previous, better fare, I have no problems with watching films that are heavily derived from their predecessors. The low budget, crowd-funded Canadian indie horror flick THE VOID is such a film, a throwback to 1980s creature cinema which feels heavily indebted to the movies of John Carpenter. It's a siege film in which a bunch of characters holed up in an isolated hospital are assailed by hooded cult members and horrific monsters, and the viewer witnesses bits of the HELLRAISER series as well as PRINCE OF DARKNESS and THE THING as they watch. I'm a huge fan of anything remotely Lovecraftian, and the tentacled horror of THE VOID was right up my street. Sure, the budget is low and they have to cut corners at times, leaving some parts fairly unconvincing, but the prosthetic effects are quite terrifying and the gore scenes hard to stomach. The unknown cast work hard to convince in their roles, and there's enough energy and imagination to make this a lot of fun.

On the effects and style end, The Void is an example to all of those filmmakers who say "fix it in post" and want to only use CGI blood instead of actual syrup mixed with whatever. It's an often grotesque display of what can be done with rubber and latex and some imagination. Is it the *most* imaginative use of practical effects? Perhaps not, but it's a lot of the time in the designs, and that the lighting is often cued to make us see the creatures and monsters and tentacles so that it's just real enough without becoming fake. And there are some unsettling choices in direction and atmosphere - how we first are introduced to the mind-control aspect involving a nurse with a scalpel and a face as revealed to be pretty much (gulp) torn off is exciting and disgusting. These directors weren't lazy when it came to effects, but unfortunately they became lazy when it came time to do the *work* of a movie script.

These characters and the plot that are cooked up for The Void are half-baked, and the actors, while not necessarily bad, are not given enough to rise up to a challenge of doing something more than what their one (or simply half) dimensional characters require them to do. The set-up is The Thing with a bit of Night of the Living Dead and then there's I'm sure a butt-load of Lovecraft there too, as a small town cop and a few locals (including the cop's pregnant wife, who we don't find out is so until later on) are trapped in a hospital as strange, white hooded figures (no KKK component with that, by the way, they're more like evil monks one sees in horror with cult scnarios) with some powers that sometimes get sort of explained, and other time (mostly) do not. It's a siege movie where people walk slowly in dark hallways and down to dark cellars, and one of the stakes is that the pregnant girl may give birth at any moment. Plus, there may be a... inter- dimensional portal of some kind?

This is a movie made by people who clearly (nakedly) love their influences (and maybe smoked a good amount of weed possibly before the script writing process, maybe during too), but they didn't put in what has to be done to make us care about the characters. This is a story where people keep acting mean and obnoxious to one another because, well, DANGER! But one of the aspects of a movie like Carpenter's The Thing is that we get to know and like the characters, and while they're types the actors do a lot of good work to help flesh out the characters too. In here, the actors often have one expression planted on their faces, and it stays there whether it's panic or mean consternation or... more panic. And while I mention that the movie has some good atmosphere, it's not directed with a distinguishing vision that would set it as something unique: a lot of hand-held when it has to get intense, a music cue that comes in when a character does a surprise move into a room or reveal in a shot (and music that becomes extremely loud and *TELLING YOU THIS IS SCARY TIME*-like during some of the more gruesome scenes).

But more than with the characters, I don't think the writers/directors did a good job selling us on what the mythology is supposed to be. There's a lot of symbolism involving these triangles and shots of dark-ominous clouds rolling in the sky, and, obviously, there is some fantastical/outer-space/interdimensional things going on. Although we do eventually get two scenes where separate villainous characters monologue to other characters - one being someone who is curiously strapped down with some scary medical things about to happen, and the reveal is a good troubling sight, while the other fills in only the slightest gaps in logic and this by the climax - I wanted to know more about the rules here.

There's mind-control and there's sometimes scenes where this world of 'The Void' or what have you shows characters some of their dreams and tries to trick them with fulfilling their desires, and yet it's also not clear how they can do this and why it's only done to some of the characters. And moreover, if they could do mind-control, why doesn't the ultimate main Bad-Baddie get the pregnant woman to him sooner for what is ultimately an impregnation-incubus sort of plot? This is a lot of style that can often work though mostly in the use of practical effects, and I must emphasize that whoever did the effects deserves a free bar for a year for the amount of work put in here (though some of that reaction may be like a guy coming in from being in the CGI desert for so long, whether some of that is derivative too I'm not sure right after seeing it), and at the same time it's sizzle-no-steak.

I didn't go with high or low expectations since I didn't know much about the film, but that's usually a good thing I think: show me what you got and try to impress me with a vision that isn't encumbered by a franchise or a major studio breathing down your necks. The Void has its moments, but a lot of it is humorless and without charm (this really could've used, if one is going to go for the 'but its homaging Carpenter and Romero etc' argument like a Ken Foree or Kurt Russell or something, someone who can make me feel some concern for these people), and at worst it may be all too impressed with its own half-baked imagery and context. 5.5/10

A small group of people we barely know are trapped inside the Marsh County Hospital with folks in white hoods sporting knives outside. The cop inside has a shotgun so....okay let's not confuse the issue with facts. Strange things happen within the hospital, i.e. re-animator type stuff along with blob creatures and of course the void, also called the abyss.

We get to see the void early and it looks like something out of "Phantasm." There was clearly a Clive Barker/Crowley/Lovecraft influence and I am glad I didn't see another Miskatonic diploma. I didn't understand the electrical power arrangements, some lights went off, some stayed on, phones and radio didn't work, cop lights do, inside hospital lights on, outside lights off. Yup, I missed something there. Would the engine start? I would take inside an operating vehicle against a group of people with knives...just saying. Also the characters were flat. Who were the final people? Poor introductions. I didn't care if they all died or went wherever...that thing before time, whatever that is. I don't think they understand quantum physics better than a fifth grader.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity. 7 stars for special effects.

Had no real idea what to expect when I picked this up, my decision was based almost solely on the cover and the small synopsis on the back, the same way we used to choose movies back in the day. Well I'm glad I did as this was a very pleasant surprise and although it doesn't break any new ground, it was refreshing to see a new horror done in an old style and still manage to work.

The setting is a largely abandoned hospital that has recently suffered a major fire. A highway patrolman finds a man, a drug addict, lying in the road and takes him to the hospital for treatment. The hospital is now only run by a skeleton staff of one doctor, 2 nurses and an intern. There are only a handful of patients. Not long after arriving the police officer notices one of the nurses killing one of the patients and seemingly under some kind of hypnotic state as she has removed the skin from her face. After she lunges at the officer with a pair of scissors, she's shot and killed. A state trooper who was already on the way investigating a previous murder relieves the officer of his gun.

Somehow the nurse has reanimated and transformed into a grotesque creature killing the trooper. Meanwhile hooded figures have surrounded the hospital not allowing anyone to leave. 2 armed men show up wanting to get their hands on the man who was recently brought in as he apparently has knowledge of what's going on and they believe he's responsible. With communications between the occupants and the outside world cut and the place surrounded, the small group find themselves in a twisted nightmare and a fight for survival as the mystery of what's going on gets more and more complicated until it's revealed that the doctor has been experimenting on reanimation and has instead found a way to transform people believing that they are a higher and more advanced form of life.

The doctor has managed to impregnate one of the patients and the remaining nurse, (ex-wife of the police officer) in an attempt to recover his lost daughter. The police officer, 2 gun-men and the addict venture down into he lower levels to locate the missing nurse and find themselves hallucinating. It's at this point the movie gets a little hard to follow as you don't always know what's real and what isn't. In any event, the doctor, who was actually killed earlier has since brought himself back to life and with all his skin removed and using a hidden sub-basement area for his experiments has been able to open a portal into another dimension which represents itself as a "plains of hell" complete with black pyramids. The pregnant patient gives birth to a full sized creature which is supposed to be the reincarnation of the doctors daughter. The police officer who is now wounded and near death anyway, grapples with the doctor and they plunge through the portal and into hell. He then reunites with his ex-wife as they stand holding hands at the base of a huge black pyramid.

The movie certainly has a familiar feel to it but that doesn't make it any less fun to watch. Anyone who's seen Re- animator, HellRaiser, From Beyond, John Carpenters - The Thing or even movies such as Xtro will find similarities in The Void, and it's clear that the creators of this have deliberately made it that way as they are obvious fans of trashy creature/gore films. The budget in this certainly wasn't high enough to produce the effects to the same quality as huge production features, so instead they opted for low-light more atmospheric shots, where limitations in design were not going to distract the viewer from the overall effect of what they were trying to achieve. It's sad this this only had a limited run in a handful of cinemas as people have really missed out on seeing what can be done using old-school special effects that still hold up today if you know what you're doing and not rely solely on CGI.

Spoilers ahead. None of the plots are ever explained. Why was the first couple in the farm house being hunted by the 2 men? Why couldn't one of those men talk? He was silent the entire film and it never said why. They set the girl on fire? What did she ever do? The guy said he went there just to do some drugs so that made no sense. Why was the cop car moved away from the hospital by an extra 100 feet? He still had the keys on him. The cop chopped up his wife with an ax then it shows him in his same cop uniform while she changed clothes holding his hand in the end. Never shown what happened to the Doctor once he entered the void. Why did anyone else need to go into the basement besides the cop looking for his wife? The Asian girl who stayed up top was the only smart one.

Well, well, well, little Alex.

Okay, here's the deal. Massive big budget Hollywood movies are now irrevocably forced to be a formula within a formula, with the big money producers never allowing anything resembling authenticity, originality or innovation to be a part of their investment. They are businessmen and behave like realtors, using risk assessment to make movies. This works incredibly well if you are Michael Bay making the newest Transformer movies. Not so well if you are writing the script for the new Star Wars sequel. It's amazing how much they lose due to loss of vision, passion, integrity and for lack of a better word "soul" in their movies. As such, all 100 to 300 million blockbusters should be boycotted (yes, Rogue One I'm talking to you), while all Indie flicks taking a big risk should be supported. And now comes The Void, a movie that would have retained a 9 but instead only gets a 7 due the shameless amalgamation of The Thing (even down to the howling other world shriek/howl of the creature). And yet, I loved this one, as I loved "Darling," another awesome Indie venture. The special effects were both intense and incredible for a low budget, the acting very well done, and the script excellent. I was riveted from the first alien mutation smorgasborg to the the second to last scene. Inexplicably, the director and writers could not come up with a better and more understandable ending (e.g. where is the fiend?). So, are you with me? Abandon the awful superficial banality of Hollywood and spend all your celluloid money on Indie. I'm with you.