The Void
Dustin Chase
Often, we get celebrity and movie stars confused. One typically has a talent, presents an art form, while the other lends their popularity to ticket sales. To be very clear, The Void has neither. There is a good reason for it too, the duo written/directed Canadian horror film couldn’t attract famous figures, even if they had the budget, which they don’t. It’s a throwback to the gory soup Peter Jackson made in his early years. It’s the type of horror movie that lacks intelligence in the script, talent on screen, and exists purely as horror porn for those who seek absurdity as a form of entertainment. These are the types of filmmakers who should be restricted to the sci-fi channel, or something equivalent, so not a single screen is being used to deny a real film a chance at projection.
What starts out as a pretty slow night for county cop Daniel Carter (Poole), takes a turn when a drugged-out teenager falls in front of his patrol car. When he drops the wounded at the local hospital, reuniting Allison, his estranged wife, working the late shift in the emergency room, things get strange. Deceased bodies comeback to life, and strangers wearing white hoods marked with triangles appear outside the rural hospital. The patients and personnel are trapped inside the medical center with only a few guns and no idea what’s happening. Daniel along with two menacing strangers hellbent on killing the teenager, try to get a hold on the situation that’s both infectious and satanic.
Easily the worst film of 2017, an achievement no other movie is likely to steal.
Subject matter aside, when the evil doctor has a secret operating facility beneath the hospital, why would he paint identifiable symbols on the door (it’s secret, no one would be going through that door but him) and then take photos of the door and his experiments putting them in a little box on his desk in the main hospital for someone to find. This script uses every cliché in every horror movie that’s ever existed, while characters constantly run around saying “What the f**k is happening”. We are never given a reason care about the survival of any character, the script doesn’t mind if we do or not, they just want to get to the puss and the vomit, as if that’s a new concept. Twenty-four other movies and or television shows have been titled The Void, another one also released this year! Even the title is uninspired.
It’s still the acting that makes The Void so abhorrent. After giving xXx: Return of Xander Cage an “F” grade, earlier this year, The Void makes me want to re-think how harsh I judged Vin Diesel’s performance, because everyone in this film is so much worse. “You’d be surprised at the things you find when you go looking,” the evil doctor says in at one point. He wasn’t kidding, there are far worse films off the beaten path and The Void is one of them. Half the running time is plagued in darkness or flickering low light so we can’t see what I am assuming is a lack of creativity in production design. The editing is atrocious as it cuts to black at the height of some supposedly intense scene. The Void is easily the worst film of 2017, an achievement no other movie is likely to steal.
Final Thought
A lousy uninspired fourth rate horror movie with some of the years worst acting.