Movies
‘The Void’ Clip: Speaking of John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’…
It’s ironic how earlier today we talked about how Universal scrubbed out all of the practical effects in their remake of The Thing and covered it with crappy CGI. That’s a huge Hollywood blockbuster that for some reason couldn’t pull off the effects they wanted. Yet, those in the UK can now see proof of the possibilities with The Void in theaters today, ahead of the April 24 VOD date. Those in the U.S. can rent it on VOD next weekend through Screen Media Films.
The film is an homage to classic John Carpenter films, which is blissfully teased in this clip that shows someone has transformed into something. There’s a mess of practical effects work in The Void that I liken to The Thing, while also giving off an Assault on Precinct 13 vibe.
The Void, which I called “a dark, demented, and disgusting horror film that’s going to live among the greatest body horror films of all time,” made its world premiere at Fantastic Fest earlier last year, followed by additional festival screenings at the London Film Festival, Toronto After Dark Film Festival, Stockholm International Film Festival, and Abertoir Horror Festival. Here’s my review.
In ‘The Void’, officer Daniel Carter (Aaron Poole) happens upon a blood-soaked figure limping down a deserted stretch of road while he’s in the middle of a routine patrol. He rushes the young man to a nearby rural hospital staffed by a skeleton crew, only to discover that patients and personnel are transforming into something inhuman. As the horror intensifies, Carter leads the other survivors on a hellish voyage into the subterranean depths of the hospital in a desperate bid to end the nightmare before it’s too late.
Written and directed by Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski of Astron-6, and starring Aaron Poole, Ellen Wong, Kathleen Munroe, Stephanie Belding, and Kenneth Welsh, The Void is a must see for hardcore horror fans that we’re going to talk a lot about later this year.
It’s been eight years since Ari Aster came onto the scene and helped usher in a new wave of horror with Hereditary, one of the rare horror movies from the past ten years that still seems to come up in conversation every single week. And it’s back in the conversation this week, with Ari Aster revealing at an event that he’s already written a prequel to Hereditary!
Ari Aster was on hand at the American Cinematheque for Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair last week, a Los Angeles festival that screened all of Aster’s movies to date. The website Gold Derby reports that Aster revealed the Hereditary prequel script during a Q&A at the event, and you can watch the full Q&A conversation below for confirmation on the website’s report.
“I wrote a prequel to this,” Aster told the crowd, referring to Hereditary. “It never feels like the right time to do it. It’s a prequel, not a sequel so I don’t know where this goes.”
Would a potential Hereditary prequel dig deeper into the mythology of demon king Paimon? Unfortunately, Aster provides no further details on his prequel approach at this time.
Aster said of Hereditary during the same Q&A, “I was just trying to make a really good horror movie.” I think most horror fans would agree that he more than accomplished that goal, and the past eight years have proven that Hereditary is an enduring classic of its generation.
We celebrated the fifth anniversary of Hereditary here on BD back in 2023.
Ron Breton wrote, “Hereditary offers a similar emotional resonance to this new generation of horror – my generation of horror– as movie-goers in the seventies when they first saw Exorcist. Much like Aster’s film, we see the incomprehensible evil wear the face of a young girl; the victim of a raw deal she had no say in, as it tears a family to its core. Sure, both films offer so many terrifying visuals that can make the hair stand up on anyone’s neck – but it also depicts intense relationships and emotions that are tangible. Real. Familiar.”
“In that familiarity lies the uncanny, ready to rear its ugly head and force us to confront thoughts and horrors laying dormant and clawing at our psyche,” Breton continued his 5th anniversary celebration of Hereditary. “And it doesn’t matter if it’s been five or fifty years. These horrors are always there, as we become pawns in its horrible, hopeless machine.”
Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Ann Dowd, and Milly Shapiro star in Hereditary. In the film, “A grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences.”
That’s putting it mildly, eh?!
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