The Void (2016)

June 23, 2018

The Void is one of the first films I've seen in this journey through horror film that I thought was legitimately scary. Not, I can't sleep tonight scary, but definitely check out the window a couple times to make sure no one in a triangle hood is outside brandishing a knife.

The film begins with the shotgun and burning murder of a woman as a man runs away. He is picked up by a cop who brings him to the local hospital where all hell breaks loose. The visuals in this film are remarkably terrifying: The men in the hoods, the monsters that break out of people but still carry the people with them, the sudden flashes of occult and cosmic imagery. The gore is also used heavily and effectively. It reminded me of Event Horizon, including an early in the film death of a woman stabbing out another person's eyes as she cuts of pits of her face flesh.

What also made the film memorable is that there is an occult cosmology theme. We get bits and pieces of the puzzle but never get the whole picture. There is the idea of transcending death, transforming into a new being, and moving into a new realm. Much of the film takes place in "the void" between the world we know and this next world. The void is violent, gory, and plainly stated horrific. What exactly is this next place? We get small images of it and a longer scene at the very end of the film but we are left questioning what it all means. The ending is very much in the vein of 2001: A Space Odyssey, only with a ton more blood and gore.