The Void (2016) Review

I’d seen/watched a couple of reviews for this film, one saying it didn’t deserve the quotes on the poster and how it was a terrible movie. The second review I saw claimed it was one of the best horror films they’d seen in a while. So two very different opinions, I love it when that happens as it makes me want to watch it to see who I side with. Combine that with a lot of credit for the practical effects and I was excited to get this film watched.

Directors: Jeremy Gillespie and Steve Kostanski

Writers: Jeremy Gillespie and Steve Kostanski

Stars: Aaron Poole, Kenneth Walsh, Daniel Fathers, Kathleen Munroe, Ellen Wong, Mik Byskov

Run Time: 90 Minutes

Tagline: There Is A Hell, This Is Worse

IMDB Link

Trivia – There is a clear influence of H.P. Lovecraft’s stories of cosmic horror, particularly The Call of Cthulhu, The Dunwich Horror and The Shadow Over Innsmouth. All of them revolve around secret cults who sacrifice humans to ancient, alien god-like creatures.

Trivia – The Void was a crowdfunded project.

One night a police officer Daniel Carter finds an injured and bloodied man limp onto a deserted road, Carter needs to get the man to a hospital the nearest one is one is running a skeleton crew to cover the lonely night shift as they look to move to a new hospital. Once there we’re introduced to the majority of the cast for the film, two nurses one of whom is Carter’s wife but they’ve split up, an older Dr, a young intern nurse along with a pregnant teenager and her grandfather.

After getting the man there another law man arrives to investigate the man who he suspected of being at a house full of dead bodies. Carter goes outside to try and call in what’s going on but is attacked by someone in a cloak with a triangle on the face. Once back inside all hell starts to break loose and we meet one of the many monsters in the film, enter a Father and Son team who burst into the hospital looking to kill the man Carter had found earlier.

There’s a lot of tension between the Father and Son and Carter as well as the others inside in the hospital. They’re soon surrounded by more and more cloaked figures but they don’t seem to be wanting to come in, they’re more keeping everyone from escaping. All this breeds paranoia and insecurity. Carter’s wife needs to get supplies for the pregnant girl and heads into the basement when Carter is out with the Father and Son trying to get ahold of his police shotgun.

When they get back in Carter has no choice but to go looking for his wife who hasn’t returned. Here’s where the film gets creative, they encounter several freakish monsters before eventually meeting up once again with the main villain, who reveals all. Where Carter’s strange visions have come from, what happened at the house the man was suspected of being at, why the villain is the villain, it all has a very Hellrasier feel to it.

The Good

• The lonely and empty hospital is a great setting.
• I loved the first hour or so, the build up to what the hell is going on was great to watch unfold. I’m always a fan of ancient evils type things.
• The cloaked weirdos who surround the hospital to keep everyone in are quite creepy.
• Plenty of blood and gore.
• The design of the monsters is fantastic they’re like a mix of The Thing and Hellraiser victims.
• Kenneth Walsh as Dr Richard Powell is the star of the film for me acting wise.

The Bad

• Might sound silly but Carter really reminded of Dewey from the Scream franchise and it was a bit off putting at times.
• Whilst the design of the monsters was cool I wasn’t keen on the main villain he reminded me too much like Frank from Hellraiser.
• The first hour is great as I mentioned but after that the film gets a bit messy, it was all over the place trying to cover quite a few things and it didn’t feel right.
• Ending was odd.

The Brilliant

• Them effects! From what I’ve read it’s all practical effects that makes the blood splatter and monster kills even better to watch. The make up to go along with it is realistic and looks great.

I’m kind of trapped in the middle with this film, the setting, effects and the story of an ancient evil older than God are all very appealing but there’s a few faults with this film that as I said made me lose interest towards the end. Most of the overall rating for this film is based on the effects and the first hour, it’s worth watching just to see a film with practical effects. I’d be interested to know if when you’ve watched this you like me lost interest or if it kept you gripped after further investigation it seems that the majority of people liked it a lot.

Overall Rating – 6/10