Well it has been a long while since we have entered two of our writers in a battle of the reviews but with the release of The Void and two different opinions on the film I thought it time to enter the men into a battle of words....
FIGHT!!!
The Void - Rating: * * 1/2 (Reviewed by Louis Stephenson)
THE STORY:
Police Officer, Daniel Carter, played by The Conspiracy’s Aaron Poole, finds himself trapped along with the remaining staff and a few patients of a closing hospital. Outside, they are surrounded by strangers in robes. Inside, an unspeakable horror is growing in the shadows. And what waits for them below is even worse…
So we got a lone cop – hold up! Why the fuck are they always alone? You’d think after over half a century of serial killers and monsters that writers would’ve learnt proper police procedure by now??? So we have our lone cop who ends up duty-bound to remain at a hospital that is almost deserted due to being packed up for a move. This is literally the same setup as 2014’s Last Shift, a much simpler and scarier horror movie.
I love my practical effects. Give me them over CGI any day of the year. So I was getting my life to see them in heavy usage in this movie. In fact, I couldn’t get enough. Every cut away to another shot was such a tease. The influence of Carpenter’s The Thing is undeniable here. But this movie was also giving me Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988) and Wishmaster (1997), the mutilation massacre scenes in particular.
The monsters attack sequence in the basement, although they looked awesome, I mostly got horror video game from them. The showdown scene also gave me a very generic, been there done that vibe. The villain’s dialogue was recycled and uninspired. It felt like I was watching a cheap Event Horizon (1997) rip-off.
At the halfway point of the movie I couldn’t help but get the feeling that the makers wanted to take things in a direction which their budget wouldn’t allow. The story certainly seems much bigger than what it second half of the film descends into, which is perhaps one of the most pointless rescue missions in horror. There are certain movies where you just know that if the villain gets to someone, then they are fucked. No two ways about it. They are fucked. And yet this is what the remainder of this movie is wasted on.
LAST WORDS:
Sometimes it really does take more than a few awesome practical effects.
Police Officer, Daniel Carter, played by The Conspiracy’s Aaron Poole, finds himself trapped along with the remaining staff and a few patients of a closing hospital. Outside, they are surrounded by strangers in robes. Inside, an unspeakable horror is growing in the shadows. And what waits for them below is even worse…
So we got a lone cop – hold up! Why the fuck are they always alone? You’d think after over half a century of serial killers and monsters that writers would’ve learnt proper police procedure by now??? So we have our lone cop who ends up duty-bound to remain at a hospital that is almost deserted due to being packed up for a move. This is literally the same setup as 2014’s Last Shift, a much simpler and scarier horror movie.
I love my practical effects. Give me them over CGI any day of the year. So I was getting my life to see them in heavy usage in this movie. In fact, I couldn’t get enough. Every cut away to another shot was such a tease. The influence of Carpenter’s The Thing is undeniable here. But this movie was also giving me Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988) and Wishmaster (1997), the mutilation massacre scenes in particular.
The monsters attack sequence in the basement, although they looked awesome, I mostly got horror video game from them. The showdown scene also gave me a very generic, been there done that vibe. The villain’s dialogue was recycled and uninspired. It felt like I was watching a cheap Event Horizon (1997) rip-off.
At the halfway point of the movie I couldn’t help but get the feeling that the makers wanted to take things in a direction which their budget wouldn’t allow. The story certainly seems much bigger than what it second half of the film descends into, which is perhaps one of the most pointless rescue missions in horror. There are certain movies where you just know that if the villain gets to someone, then they are fucked. No two ways about it. They are fucked. And yet this is what the remainder of this movie is wasted on.
LAST WORDS:
Sometimes it really does take more than a few awesome practical effects.
V.S
The Void - Rating: * * * * (Reviewed by Craig Beecham)
After a small break from the reviewing game i'm glad to be back. This time around it's nice to bring you a glowing review (honestly, I was exhausted from watching all sorts of tripe at the back end of 2016) for a great direct to DVD title called The Void.
Now, The Void tries all the usual tricks to pull you in, promising top of the range practical effects and using comparisons to movies like The Thing and Event Horizon - this is enough to get most horror fans on board but is it all a con? tricks of the trade used on cover art to get your dosh?? i'm glad to say in this instance no, it wasn't.
The Void stars Aaron Poole as Officer Daniel Carter, whose duty it is to protect a small local hospital from some sort of crazed white cloaked cult enthusiasts who have surrounded the building, all the while something far more sinister is taking place inside the hospital and inside the minds of those trapped within it's walls.
There is a lot of 80's nostalgia flooding the market and the John Carpenter influence is in abundance here but it's always done in a complimentary way rather than to the point of spoofing or copying. The main draw is the amazing practical effects, the movie boasts of zero CGI and it's refreshing, some of the action looks a bit stationery but the majority of the effects are an amazing gooey mess of ideas and hard work.
The Void is a mix of sub-genres which starts off as a thriller along the lines of Assault on Precinct 13th, turns into a monster movie and then goes into a sci-fi mind fuck direction. This does have some negative impact, I thought the movie was flabby around the middle and could of done with one more action set piece to keep viewers in the zone but overall I was extremely happy with the final product and was glad to be bowled over by a movie that I never saw coming.
It isn't The Thing and it isn't Event Horizon but if you're a fan of these movies you won't be disappointed. I'm looking forward to what Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski bring to the genre next. 4/5
Now, The Void tries all the usual tricks to pull you in, promising top of the range practical effects and using comparisons to movies like The Thing and Event Horizon - this is enough to get most horror fans on board but is it all a con? tricks of the trade used on cover art to get your dosh?? i'm glad to say in this instance no, it wasn't.
The Void stars Aaron Poole as Officer Daniel Carter, whose duty it is to protect a small local hospital from some sort of crazed white cloaked cult enthusiasts who have surrounded the building, all the while something far more sinister is taking place inside the hospital and inside the minds of those trapped within it's walls.
There is a lot of 80's nostalgia flooding the market and the John Carpenter influence is in abundance here but it's always done in a complimentary way rather than to the point of spoofing or copying. The main draw is the amazing practical effects, the movie boasts of zero CGI and it's refreshing, some of the action looks a bit stationery but the majority of the effects are an amazing gooey mess of ideas and hard work.
The Void is a mix of sub-genres which starts off as a thriller along the lines of Assault on Precinct 13th, turns into a monster movie and then goes into a sci-fi mind fuck direction. This does have some negative impact, I thought the movie was flabby around the middle and could of done with one more action set piece to keep viewers in the zone but overall I was extremely happy with the final product and was glad to be bowled over by a movie that I never saw coming.
It isn't The Thing and it isn't Event Horizon but if you're a fan of these movies you won't be disappointed. I'm looking forward to what Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski bring to the genre next. 4/5
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