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
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