31 Days of Horror- Day 15: The Void (2016)

(dir. Steven Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie)

D Films

In this Lovecraftian inspired blending of horror subgenres, A group of people become trapped in a small-town hospital as a hooded cult surrounds the perimeter, and creatures spawned by a dark cosmic force grow inside.

There are some horror films that become so immersive in the experiences they create, that whatever flaws exist within it become moot as you become swept up in the whirlwind of curiosity that comes with exploring a frightening new territory. While the acting is a bit spotty at parts, and the connective story tissue ultimately becomes impenetrable in classic H.P. Lovecraft fashion, The Void is a practical effects lover’s haven and an ambitious cathedral of gore and weirdness that make it one of the year’s best horror films. Kostanski and Gillespie, primarily known for their art department and makeup work, with credits including Suicide Squad, Crimson Peak, and Pacific Rim, announce themselves as forces to be reckoned with through The Void. The set-up is simple, and the utilization of the classic “trapped in a single location” scenario is an almost effortless horror movie tool. But The Void stretches far beyond the classic, despite its wide range of inspirations and manages to top itself from scene to scene and effect to effect as we’re taken down the dark spiral of the pain that humans' cling to despite their best interests.

Grief is the fulcrum that the film rests on, and The Void is the messy afterbirth of that grief, afterbirth teeming with strange new half-life. Deputy Daniel Carter (Aaron Poole) and his estranged wife and nurse, Alison (Kathleen Munroe), divided by the death of their unborn daughter, are central to the film’s examination of how loss isn’t only horrific but transformative. Along with a pregnant woman and her father, a nursing intern, a Doctor, and a pair of outsiders on the run from the mysterious cult, Daniel and Alison entangled in the forces of death that exist beyond all concepts of Heaven and Hell. The film enables us to care about these characters so that even as creatures overrun the hospital and blood conceals in the halls, The Void remains a story of human beings. After all, any probing into the afterlife remains unimportant unless its tethered to human beings and their fragility.

The Void is gorgeous in its production design. Every creature, and almost every shot is impressively crafted and designed with a voice that gives the film its own identity despite its debts to The Thing, Re-Animator, From Beyond, and any number of Cronenberg films. Unlike another impressively designed modern film that wears its influences on its sleeves, Beyond the Black Rainbow, The Void is quickly paced, creating a rollercoaster like experience that maintains thrills even as it refuses to answer the questions it poses. It’s not that the unanswered questions don’t matter, but that the surrounding experience carries such a force, that you can’t feel cheated. And perhaps, like any cosmic based horror worth its blood-sheened stars, the fear can only remain when it's in the unknown and inexplicable.

Scare Factor: 3/5 In many ways, The Void is the Resident Evil movie so many fans of the games wanted and never received. Even for a small-scale independent horror movie, there’s a grandness to Kostanski and Gillespie’s film, one that makes these filmmakers primed to take on larger horror worlds (the things these guys could do with a big-budget Stephen King property!). The Void maintains a sense of authenticity while feeling simultaneously novel in its designs and concerns. The Void sure to be regarded as a modern horror cult classic, and hopefully the first step in what will be an long and impressive horror filmography.

*Available on Netflix