Director Jeremy Gillespie, Steven Kostanski
Genre Horror
Cast Aaron Poole, Kenneth Welsh, Daniel Fathers, Kathleen Munroe
Rating Unrated
Release Date April 7th, 2017 (Limited & On-Demand)
“Shortly after delivering a patient to an understaffed hospital, a police officer experiences strange and violent occurrences seemingly linked to a group of mysterious hooded figures.”
Written and directed by Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski, who won the Jury Award for Best Feature at the Nevermore Film Festival, The Void is categorized as a horror/mystery/sci-fi film. The overall premise is rather mysterious when you watch the trailer but it has a very cultish vibe to it, and seems to appeal to old-school horror fans. The cast includes Aaron Poole, Kenneth Welsh, Daniel Fathers, and Kathleen Munroe.
Decent acting and a solid gore factor isn't enough to save The Void from a convoluted script and confusing premise, making this potential cult-classic a mediocre entry at best. I'm honestly not quite sure where to start. If you know me or have followed my site in any way you know that I am very much a legitimate fan of horror films. I have a special place in my heart for slasher films, particularly Friday the 13th, and my love and appreciation for horror has only grown over the years. After initial reviews for The Void surfaced I was pretty excited. Critics were saying it was a throwback to old school 80's horror which was quite the statement, and the trailer showed a great deal of promise. I had to find time to check this one out sooner than later so I pulled the trigger on the On-Demand purchase as the film received a limited release.
Well first things first, did these so-called critics even watch the movie? Or did they simply put together a review after just watching the trailer, because that’s what I feel like happened after actually watching it. The Void is a jumbled mess of horror and sci-fi, with the added element of an extremely poorly-written script. First of all, who is the main character and who are we as viewers supposed to care about? It is unclear from the beginning and only becomes more and more unclear as it goes along, and to me that is an issue. What irritates me most is it starts out very promising- instilling the much needed uneasy "what the heck is going on here" feel right from the very first 5 seconds of the film. But it quickly shifts into no man's land, and becomes a confusing sci-fi horror which disappointingly includes zero scares in my opinion, and not even a single jump scare. Sure it is plenty gory and gross in a variety of ways which is a plus, but the problem is that this isn't gore in the slasher or even Saw version of the term, but instead more of the strange tentacle sci-fi variety, if you get my drift. Some may appreciate that more than others, and it is clear they spent quite a bit of time with the overall look of everything, and the effects are impressive. I did a little research and according to IMDb's "Did You Know" section, the film is influenced by H.P. Lovecraft's cosmic horror (I had no idea who that was either so you are not alone), which essentially revolves around secret cults who sacrifice humans to ancient, alien god-like creatures. Well that certainly makes sense and I wish I had known it previously because not only is that not my thing at all, but to me that is not scary. Now the people in the white what I can only refer to as old-school Ku Klux Klan (KKK) outfits, they are creepy, but if you asked me who or better yet what they actually are, you would probably get a blank stare because I literally have no idea. I wish I knew.
Acting takes a back seat in The Void but somehow it is still one of the brighter spots of the overall final product. It includes its fair share of cheesy acting from a bunch of no-name actors and actresses but they still manage to deliver a serviceable performance. Aaron Poole assumes what seems to be the lead role and actually does a pretty good job with it. Although he seems to have plenty of work as an actor, most of us won't recognize him because he generally works on short films and lesser-known television shows. He did have a small role in The Samaritan (2012), which starred Samuel L. Jackson. Co-star Kenneth Welsh was great and successfully portrayed a doctor who seemed to have more than a few secrets. This guy has a very impressive resume according to IMDb which started in 1964, and consists of 219 total acting credits to date. Now that is pretty damn impressive. The Canadian-born over 75-year-old actor looks pretty damn good for his age. With a better script and some clear-cut direction this cast would have been more than capable of ensuring this was a good horror film destined for cult-classic status, I feel confident in that.
Admittedly, I am being rather hard on this movie, mainly because I had high expectations and it really wasn’t at all what I expected it to be. If you enjoy films that are a mix of horror and a heavy dose of sci-fi than you may enjoy The Void a heck of a lot more than I did. But if you would prefer to watch something really scary that ends with at least a semblance of understanding to what you just spent an hour and 30 minutes watching, you should probably steer clear. It isn't a terrible movie, it's really not, it just should have and could have been a lot better than it is. Bottom line, if you have an indie horror itch that needs scratching, you can do better than The Void by quickly searching Netflix or Amazon Prime. If you need a few suggestions, feel free to contact me and I would be more than happy to provide more than a few recommendations.
