Shocktober #2 The Void (2016)

If the Void was released in the 1980s, it would be a cult gem well thought of by genre aficionados of 2017. As a modern release, the Void is throwback to decades before found footage, home invasion, and torture porn flooded the horror market. The Void lacks sophistication and any of deep meaning or resonance, but makes up for it with a stark atmosphere, buckets of gore, and a script that jams as many horror standards as it can for 82 minutes before the credits roll. 

Aaron Poole, who I've never seen before, stars as a small town cop whose relatively quiet overnight shift takes a turn when he discovers a crazed blood-soaked man (Evan Stern) in the middle of a country road. Carter takes the man to the local emergency room, conveniently staffed by Carter’s ex-wife Allison (Kathleen Munroe), two other nurses and an older doctor (Kenneth Welsh, the only recognizable face, notable from Twin Peaks). Things take a bizarre turn, however, when two men burst into the hospital looking to kill the man Carter brought in, while outside the building is suddenly surrounded by a horde of ominous white robed cultists. 

To say anything else about the plot would completely ruin whats to come, so suffice it to say that the Void piles on well worn tropes. We have some disgusting zombies, a death cult, an otherworldy being speaking from another dimension, some pregnancy related body horror, and Lovecraft/John Carpenter's the Thingesque beasts rampaging around the hospital. The movie becomes a cinematic soup blending together Hellraiser and The Beyond with Assault on Precinct 1s. Writers/directors Steve Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie, a make-up artist and visual designer respectively (notable works from the pair includes makeup and art from Pacific Rim, It, Suicide Squad, and Crimson Peak), throw pretty much everything at the wall here and surprisingly make most of it stick, letting the thick atmosphere, sober tone and truly gonzo visuals carry the film even while their script doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

My big problem with the movie is the mythology and story. I enjoy cosmic Lovecraftian horror that doesn't make much logical sense, but this really seems like a greatest hits collection from other movies. I was never really sure what the cult and the portal and the monsters  all have to do with each other. The third act also features a Pinhead knockoff who shows up solely to deliver some clunky exposition to tie things together. But where the story lapses, the first time directors make up for it with swift, clean editing and jaw-dropping practical gore and creature effects. I really truly appreciate that in an age when even blood is CGI I was given visceral practical effects. A minor quibble is that the editing was a bit slower in some scenes where it’s a bit hard to tell what is doing what to whom, but that may be due to budgetary limitations and not wanting to overexpose the latex creatures.

As it stands, the Void does not pulls the overarching mythos together into a coherent whole, while at the same time giving the small and over-matched band of refugees so many connection points that it straddles the line of being contrived. Nevertheless, the leads have enough charisma and charm that I was rooting for them to escape, with Poole giving a warm performance as a fairly milquetoast cop who must rise to a decidedly unprecedented challenge  Kostanski and Gillespie pay homage to nostalgia without resorting to cheap copycat tricks; as a result, I recognized the homages throughout without shaking my head. The all-out mash up and lack of a coherent story will likely keep it from classic status (this isn't a Babadook or It Follows), but it’s still 82 minutes of mayhem that embraces its genre with relish, respect and style.

6/10

Shockoctober 2017 #1 - Hush

My thoughts on Hush, an outstanding start to Shocktober 2017. From director Mike Flanagan who took the very silly premise of a killer mirror movie  in Oculus and elevated it from laughable to decent also took the home invasion movie and brought a unique sensibility without resorting to gimmicks. In the same way, in a year with Wonder Woman dominating the summer, Hush is a similarly empowering movie for females as well as maintaining suspense.

The setup is simple, author Maddie (Kate Siegel) lives alone in the woods trying to follow up a successful book. She lost her senses of speech and hearing to a nasty bout of bacterial meningitis (the exposition is delivered briefly yet effective). When a masked psychotic killer (John Gallagher, Jr., who I recognized from genre outings 10 Cloverfield Lane and the Belko Experiment) shows up on her doorstep one night, he pushes Maddie to her complete limits over the course of one night.

Hush makes a bold decision with its killer at the end of its first act, and it turns out to be a wise one. I won’t spoil it here, but suffice it to say that Gallagher is given much more to work with than your standard masked killer. The film shies away from a lengthy expository monologue, giving the character (in the credits listed as only “The Man”) the necessary menace needed to instill fear.

In a completely silent performance, the strong showing from Siegel makes the movie work. (she also was quite good in Oculus). She makes Maddie one of the best horror protagonists seen in recent memory. Her lack of dialogue in the film (save for one internal monologue, a device I'm glad that was limited) does not stop Siegel from an impassioned performance. I also have to credit the script for acknowledging and sidestepping the tropes common in this subset of the genre.

Flanagan, as expected, plays with sound design a lot in the film, albeit not as much as you might expect. The sound in the film goes out at certain points and I almost wish that Flanagan had used this technique more and had longer sequences of complete silence. There is a sparse score that never rises to the forefront of the action. I was also reminded of one of the few episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that I've seen featuring long sequences of complete silence. 

The film’s only misstep comes with Maddie’s neighbor John (Michael Trucco), in a sequence that almost slips completely back into the home invasion cliches although Trucco doesn't play it for comedy (no comic relief side characters here) There is also a dream scare sequence that had to have been included to pad the runtime (We were at 78 minutes when the credits rolls and I do appreciate the lack of padding). The "shocking" dream feels cheap when held up next to the rest of the film.

The film is shot competently but not necessarily creatively. Cinematographer James Kniest shoots the house and the woods surrounding it with a good sense of claustrophobia, although most likely due to the budget there is no particularly innovative camera techniques. The movie is tightly cut and I especially enjoyed the editing during the aforementioned "monologue" sequence. While incredibly suspenseful, at no point was I ever truly scared during Hush and I commend Flanagan for not falling into the "boo" scare morass that seems to plague similarly typed movies.

Hush is a terrific film, boasting some fantastic set pieces and excellent performances from Siegel and Gallagher. Additionally, it is streaming on Netflix so among the crowd of garbagey recommendations, it truly stands out. I have no doubt that it will be added to many of those “overlooked horror gem” clickbaits in the near future. It’s so good that I went and added Flanagan's next movie, Ouijia 2, to my Shocktober slate. 

9/10