The Void (2017)
The Void (2017)
Written and Directed by Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski
Not Rated
I’ll give The Void this at least. It is a spectacular practical make-up effects show case and it is a bit refreshing to see old fashioned make-up work done to the extent presented in the movie. But, unfortunately, that is pretty much all I can say to really complement this film. The Void just came across to me as a movie that feels like a slightly above average direct to video horror movie that is admittedly better shot, slightly better written and slightly better acted. It is another product in the wave of media that is in homage to the 80’s that is becoming quite popular right now with movies like It Follows (which I recommend) or the Netflix show Stranger Things (which I didn’t care for).
A cop discovers a drug addict by the side of the road and takes him to the nearest hospital that is in the process of closing down due to a fire that broke out months before. Upon getting the addict there, however, strange things begin to happen. A cult that consists of people in white robes with hoods that have a black triangle in the center surround the hospital, two men show up to kill the drug addict, people start turning into odd tentacle monsters, and other crazy stuff happens. It would be sufficient to say that all hell breaks loose.
I’ll admit that I am not the biggest fan of the horror genre for the most part but I do enjoy the movies that The Void is clearly inspired by like Clive Barker’s Hellraiser (just the first one…I don’t care to watch the others) or even John Carpenter’s The Thing and it is also heavily inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft (we sure are getting a lot of those these days…) Just on those things alone I was kind of sold on this film. I really wanted to like it.
But I didn’t.
You may have noticed that I haven’t really talked about the characters or even given much more of a plot synopsis. That’s because neither of these things are the real focus of the film but rather the makeup effects and they upstage pretty much everything else in the movie. All the make-up and gore effects were well shot and look convincing but it is all in service to an overall so-so splatter-fest.
When it comes to the characters, there’s not much to say about them. Now it is not necessarily a requirement to have characters in a horror film to be the most developed. The characters in Alien (1979), for instance, didn’t have the most highly developed characters in terms of background and such but there should be characters you would want to follow throughout the film and I just didn’t get that here. We get some small things like the cop having his estranged wife work at the hospital and we get to see some tension between them due to their infant son dying, some drama involving a pregnant girl and her grandfather, a father and son who are hunting the drug addict and even some moments with a nursing intern but the movie didn’t give me a reason to really follow them and I quickly forgot about them once they started dying. In fact, I started forgetting their names almost as soon as they were introduced. Well…Ok I remember that the cop’s name is Daniel but only because they say his name a lot. I don’t mention the other characters because I had to go look them up on IMDB. What does that tell you? Forgettable characters in horror movies are something I’m usually ok with ignoring if only the atmosphere, tension and action picked up any of the slack but alas the makeup work, gore effects and monster scenes quickly became monotonous and thus compounded the problem.
Apart from the most basic plot summary, I honest couldn’t really remember what this film was supposed to be about and it didn’t give me a reason to stay interested. I lost track of the plot (as paper thin as it is) about half way into the movie and was just waiting for it to end. Whatever meanings the film was attempting to convey with all the Lovecraft imagery and talk (that’s the best I can describe it) was lost to me and I was ok with that. Look, I don’t consider myself an unreasonable guy and I’m willing to forgive a lot in a movie like this if it engages me or at the very least entertains me but it didn’t even deliver those.
What some will take away from reading this is that movies like The Void are not for me but I don’t necessarily think that’s true. I actually do love me some body horror movies such as the ones I listed previously and even others like Videodrome. I enjoy films that are sufficiently “out there” and I’m far from squeamish but as I said before, the star of this film is the makeup work which is backed up by decent filmmaking and acting. Nostalgia for a certain kind of filmmaking alone is not enough to sell me on a movie.
What do I mean?
This is the kind of movie where someone watched tons of similar movies like this in their youth and wanted to imitate them without really giving it its own identity. What results is a kind of novelty movie where it seems fresh and appetizing at first glance until you take a bite out of it (so to speak) and find it flavorless and mushy on the inside. Something else has to be brought to the table to complement it and make it more unique from what was done in the past otherwise whatever novelty something has at the beginning will quickly wear off.
The Void is not a terrible film, per say. It’s just an uninspired one and the script just didn’t deliver. And again I would be willing to give it a pass if it were a well-made above average monster movie with great sequences that were just set up to entertain but this sets itself up as something more important and meaningful. Upon doing further research, I found that the writer/directors of this film are from make-up effects and art department backgrounds and it shows. They may have some basic filmmaking skills (each director did some short films before this one) but they couldn’t make what influenced them mesh together in an interesting way. While the effects and overall photography were fun to watch at certain times, it is more fun to watch a movie that doesn’t feel like it is going through one eyeball and out the other.
In the end, I suppose The Void is what I would call a watchable disappointment.
