Monday, April 10, 2017

The Void in 250 Words or Less

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No monster in its right mind (as much as monsters have "right minds" of course) would choose to have just one single monstrous tentacle. They want to have bunches! Tentacles for days. And so the new horror movie The Void, working from that monstrous mindset, wriggles itself jelly-like into all your crevasses - dissatisfied with being just one thing it's a shape-shifter, a gelatinous nightmare thing with bunches, just absolute bunches, of sticky twisty limbs. Picture what Clive Barker might dream of after eating sloppy joes and watching a double feature of Re-Animator and The Thing right before bed and you'd probably be on the right track.

The Void might be a bit of a Frankenstein beast but that's not a credit against the film's creativity - this is no homage machine, existing solely to give its audience goose-pimples of recognition. It's out to creep you out on its own two feet, and it often earns a gold star on that front. The Void feels perfectly fine with going to perfectly horrible places - you never get the feeling the film-makers held back; they allow their nightmares free rein, and the film's better for it. Its vision of Hell seeping into our world rings some unsettling bells - it'd probably make for a fine double-feature with the 2015 Turkish nightmare flick Baskin (my review) which also ran the distance with the courage of its cruel convictions. So what I'm saying is be prepared for a freak-out, folks.
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2 comments:

Unknown said...

It's nice to see an old school monster without the CGI. This thing was visceral!

Anonymous said...

I saw this movie over the weekend,and I wondered what you would think of it. Lovecraft was definitely the first impression on my mind. I was also thrown backwards when it shifted from a nice, peaceful and logical pastoral in the beginning and then immediately without warning shifted to a downright screaming nightmare. Hell is definitely real in this movie. And it's not formulaic at all. Many twists and turns. I still love "Devil's Candy" better though. :)