I am happy to have just moved to Toronto because of events like After Dark Film Festival, an annual international horror, cult, sci-fi and action film festival. Before I realized that THE VOID was part of this fest, someone had sent me the trailer and stills of the poster designs, which were all stunning. Based on the design and art of the promotional materials, I was excited to see this film. I then realize that the director’s Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski have some serious mainstream “cred,” so let’s see how they did…

 

If you want a profound character study, look elsewhere, these characters are not developed. The dialogue is enjoyable only because of its delivery, but not necessarily from it’s content. Most of what the protagonist males say are things that anyone in the audience would say which is something I like in horror movies, but basically the men are all the same character, with exception of the evil villain driven crazy with grief. Thematically, what you get is two cis white men arguing about reproductive rights and a lot of woman/ woman-oid killing. The women…they are all weak, dumb, prone to “histronics,” have unrealistic dialogue, make poor choices; they were either helpless, yet seemed to be punished when they have an active role at all. Women in this movie are only vessels or a foil to show how men are men – straight up cave man shit…women weak/men strong.

 

It makes sense because the movie itself is one big ode to the penis. I say that because it is rooted in how anything outside of heteronormativity is an abomination. As we have seen throughout the history of the world, it is when men realize they cannot create life, they destroy it or build something (yo, the skyscraper).  This movie touches on how “building” something has always asserted itself to the realms of women’s bodies, but not in a contemplative way. Men are the only characters here who have any power to change the world and when a woman is created in a man’s image without the birds and bees, we get a female monster, a daughter, a “creative” result for the madness of a man who wants to cheat death. The female monster serves no “natural” function in its existence, it is grotesque, it must be killed.

 

There are several ways to approach this monster, as a mandate that the perceived “natural” binary order should be upheld, which is what the whole movie leans toward in it’s treatment of the women characters, OR a cautionary tale about what happens with men when they fuck with our reproductive rights. The Void is much more obviously the former, this is no feminist horror tale, but then again, I don’t think the creators have any interest in how sexist it is.

 

Even though it is thematically thoughtless, The Void’s practical creature effects and gore are excellent, and the monster/ humanoid blobs are scary and gross as fuck. The first monster encounter gore is so fucking excellent that I couldn’t help but watch mouth-agape with a “hell yea” in the middle. The imagery of this movie of vast expanse, the heavens, the repetition of triangles and bleak other worldly elements are great. The masscult figures with knives are menacing and effective. The spot on color profiles, the vivid ones, are reserved for the otherworldly parts. I don’t like the actual music choices, there were few, but I really love the booming sounds during the more abstract scenes, which result in taking you to a place of near sensory overload or total abandon. Like white noise can be soothing or maddening. During the scary creature scenes the soundtrack perfectly in line with the action.

 

The end provides no closure, which I love – at least they went there, they are still instilling terror in the white cis male heart and dick. They could have ended it at a simple “Adam and Eve” moment, but then they fuck with you showing an alternate reality of the same theme. It’s funny because, of course, the natural order is restored at the hands of a man though some real Jesus-like sacrifice. This horror flick doesn’t deliver anything profound, but you will get some great gore, scary monsters that make you feel strange in your own skin and some beautiful visuals. The Void is the same irrational fears of white cis men, but at least the gore is outstanding.