The quote in this post's title is actually from the '80s comedy Sixteen Candles, but even though it's being uttered to high school stud Jake Ryan, it is still apt when describing the new indie horror film, The Void.
I saw the trailer a month ago and was excited for its release. The trailer seemed to promise a return to the '80s body-morphing "practical effects" (i.e., non CG) of classics like The Thing (oh, you mean THAT movie?) or much of Cronenberg's '80s gems.
The Void does make good on its vibe of non-CG, model-made creatures, which is one of its definite pluses. And it's familiarity in story and vibe is like a warm, friendly blanket of horror movie commonality. But it's also what eventually sends this film off the rails.
A small-town cop on night duty finds a disturbed, injured man crawling on a desolate forest road and brings him in to a small local hospital. The tiny night staff of nurses and doctors and a few patients are caught up in a quickly disintegrating mess of possessed murderous staff, renegade hicks with guns, and a growing crowd of masked, robe-clad cultists surrounding the hospital. What's not to love?
The movie both benefits and suffers from its mash-up approach of other, usually better films. The location and intro seems to riff on the hospital set of Halloween 2, and the melting and morphing alien/human hybrids in the film's second act definitely take a huge influence from The Thing. Speaking of John Carpenter, with the trapped and surrounded in a small location set-up, I'm getting shades of Assault on Precinct 13.
Where the movie starts to fall apart is the final act. With its nonsensical plot splinters and reliance on Hellraiser-style characters and situations, it leads to a head-scratching final shot.
Do you remember Danny Boyle's sci-fi thriller Sunshine, a remarkable visual feast of outer space travel and a thrilling tale of survival and escape? It also ended with clunky humanoid/demon nonsensical mess. The Void seemed to think that was a good call for an ending as well.
Hoping a re-viewing of the film will fill in plot holes and clear up the confusion of a promising story that went off-track.
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