Police officer Carter discovers a bloodied man exiting the woods. The nearest hospital during this late night shift is soon-to-be closing with only a few patients and a limited staff. Once officer Carter and his man arrive, some extremely strange and gruesome things start to happen. As a mysterious and dangerous group of hooded figures begin to surround the hospital, it’s clear the small group of diverse people trapped inside the hospital are in for a horrific and death-filled evening of supernatural evil.
Location is key to any good horror movie and THE VOID has a great set-up. Using a hospital as its main location to hold up, I couldn’t help but be reminded of other exciting successful horror movies before it. Among countless others, the set up is reminiscent of horror movies like 1995’s TALES FROM THE CRYPT: DEMON KNIGHT (trapped in a hotel) or 2005’s FEAST (trapped in a bar). I hate to bring up George Romero’s classics among this lesser film but also THE NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (trapped in a house) and DAWN OF THE DEAD (trapped in a mall). But unlike those great examples, THE VOID fails to supply much social commentary or satirical, self-aware humor.
Unfortunately, after the initial setup, THE VOID begins to resemble the horror tones of the demonic stories from the late 80’s and early 90’s like NIGHT OF THE DEMONS or THE GATE. In fact,THE VOID’s closer counterparts are probably mostly inspired by some of Clive Barker’s creations like HELLRAISER or LORD OF ILLUSIONS. Depending on what you think of these gateway to hell films will probably resemble what your opinion might be of THE VOID. Personally, these have always been among my least favorite genre of horror movies, preferring the structure of those films from my previous paragraph.
The special effects or creature creation is another area to loathe or love depending on your opinion of the gross out demon genre from the past. To one extent the monsters that people become look disgustingly great with odd tentacles and abstract body parts, but to another extent they seem to take on generic blobs without a structural imagination. If the creations were being judged on the sci-fi make-up competition, “Face Off”, I can’t help but think they might have some accolades technically but criticism creatively.
Other than its setup and the sorely underutilized cloaked figures with an eerie triangle symbol for the mask, there isn’t anything too memorable about THE VOID. The ending drags a bit with a bad guy monologuing like a Bond villain far longer than necessary, over explaining his complicated plan of birthing religious evil. To be fair, as a genre piece for those who like this style of horror films, THE VOID is probably a passable homage to the films you liked in the past. I, however, didn’t find anything especially riveting, new, or most importantly, scary about THE VOID.
