Just got home from a midnight screening of The Void at IFC Center. Fantastic throwback to the classic, gore-drenched horror movies of the 1980s—those ones with the unsettling video cassette covers that made every childhood trip to Blockbuster fuel for future nightmares. In terms of structure and tone, it’s basically the original Assault on Precinct 13 meets The Thing, with a dash of Hellraiser thrown in for good measure. A few of the performances don’t quite mesh with the oppressive atmosphere, the low budget is occasionally obvious, and a couple of plot developments feel a little too contrived, but between the welcome cosmic twist (Lovecraft’s “alien geometries” have never been so lovingly rendered on the big screen) and some sick practical creature effects that would make Clive Barker and Rob Bottin proud (after they got done vomiting), I can’t help but enjoy the wild, nostalgic thrill ride, warts and all. The Void won’t be everybody’s cup of tea, but I’m confident it’ll become a cult classic and go on to influence a whole new generation of genre filmmakers.
Yog-Sothoth save us all.
[Originally written April 29, 2017.]
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