Reviews
[REVIEW] Love the Craft in ‘The Void’ (2016)
If you want to watch a Lovecraftian monster flick where exposition is just as scary as the thing that lurks in the dark, then The Void is right for you. If exposition doesn’t matter, and you just want to watch some gnarly otherworldly creatures go to town on some unsuspecting townies, then The Void is right for you.
It’s Monster May-hem time! What is the first film that comes to mind when you think of monster movies? Frankenstein? Or maybe Cloverfield? Monster movies are a cornerstone of the horror genre. Writers get a chance to stretch their imaginations to create horrors beyond the unknown. SFX artists get to craft those words into truly horrifying, world-ending entities in a physical form. While directors/cinematographers bring these malicious monstrosities to life. The first film we’ll look at for Monster May-hem is a blink-and-you-miss-it Lovecraftian romp, The Void.
Astron-6, founded by Adam Brooks and Jeremy Gillespie, with later additions of Matt Kennedy, Conor Sweeney, and Steven Kostanski, found themselves unconstrained by the genre and made some truly impressive films. Their film The Editor was a fun meta look at giallo films, Manborg was just wild, and Steven Kostanski even directed a Leprechaun movie! For Monster May-hem we are going to look at two of their films, starting with The Void.
Chaos Unfolds in The Void
The Void follows a group of unfortunate souls in a soon-to-be-closed-down hospital. Deputy Sheriff Daniel Carter (Aaron Poole) brings James (Evan Stern) to the hospital after watching him come stumbling out of the woods covered in blood. Allison (Kathleen Munroe), Daniel’s wife/ex-wife (?), just so happens to be working the night shift at the hospital. That’s sure to cause some drama. An assorted group of people, a couple of nurses and patients, are also in the hospital, though they’re mainly there for body count purposes. Things kick off when a cult, adorned in white cloaks with black triangles covering their faces, comes to collect James.
Written and directed by Steven Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie, The Void lacks an engaging story. Instead, it solely relies on visuals to pull the weight. You’ll be displeased if you’re expecting a groundbreaking story that sets this apart from the myriad of other Lovecraftian films. Where The Void excels against other films like it is the creature designs. Plus, what other Lovecraftian film can boast a Troy James appearance? Storywise, you are inundated with ‘cryptic’ bits of backstory between Daniel and Allison as well as how Daniel keeps getting compared to his retired cop father. Nearly all of the dialogue is too on the nose and forced.
Why the Script Feels Forced
Kostanski and Gillespie understand visual storytelling, and it’s a shame the script feels as harsh as it is. When it comes to the creatures and violence, we are thrown face-first into the horror and once that point is hit, there is no going back. Each monster is fully realized and tells a story of its evolution and survival. No one creature looks the same, and it’s clear how much care and craft went into the creature’s creations. There’s a well-handled mixture of showing too much and then not enough. Kostanski and Gillespie expertly show you what you need to see, while also letting the audience form their own ideas of what isn’t shown.
The idea behind the cult is fairly muddled, but since they’re more or less a conduit for the existence of these creatures within this world it’s forgivable. Do the black triangles on their hoods mean anything more than a thinly veiled Illuminati reference? Who knows, but they get the job done as effective supporting antagonists. One of the most visually enjoyable moments of the film comes when Daniel is trying to get the shotgun out of his cruiser and hits his red and blues—the camera reveals a hoard of cultists as the red and blues illuminate them in an overtly insidious way. It never fails to give me chills on each rewatch.
Bottomline: The Void is a Lovecraftian Horror Gem for Monster Fans
If you want to watch a Lovecraftian monster flick where exposition is just as scary as the thing that lurks in the dark, then The Void is right for you. If exposition doesn’t matter, and you just want to watch some gnarly otherworldly creatures go to town on some unsuspecting townies, then The Void is right for you. On a side note, check out some of Astron-6’s other films. The Void is an outlier in their filmography, as this is really the only seriously non-comedic film in their oeuvre. It’s been four years since we got a feature film from Astron-6, I think it’s time for another one.
Haunted house stories are a staple in the horror genre. But it’s not often that a haunted house film digs its way under your skin and stays there long after the credits roll. Enter Recluse, celebrating its world premiere at the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival.
A Disturbing Return Home Fuels Recluse’s Story
Joan Wyatt, a young and troubled audio engineer, is called back to her childhood home following a bizarre accident in which her father, the famous artist Lawrence Wyatt, was engulfed in flames and left in critical condition. Joan has been estranged from her father for quite some time, so when his longtime housekeeper Lydia leaves a voicemail telling her that he likely doesn’t have a lot of time left, she ignores it. But then Lawrence himself calls, telling Joan that he’s been seeing her mother—who disappeared when Joan was a child—around the house.
Joan arrives to find Lydia armed with a crossbow to ward off Lawrence’s obsessive fans. Her father is bed-bound with severe burns, and is being cared for by a hired nurse around Joan’s age named Emily. Lawrence, who notoriously experimented with psychedelics and occult practices during his career, is barely coherent and keeps his face concealed underneath a crude plaster mask. He keeps asking about his “little spider.” It’s disturbing and deeply upsetting, especially since Joan already has a lifetime of trauma associated with the house. Now that she’s back, she begins to suspect that these “ghosts” aren’t metaphorical. Lawrence was not a good man… but something even more sinister may be lurking in the house.
Henry Chaisson Reinvents the Haunted House Formula
Recluse, written and directed by Henry Chaisson, is a masterfully crafted debut feature that takes familiar elements of the haunted house genre—like a remote mansion as the setting, traumatic family secrets, and supernatural mischief—and twists them into something fresh and, well, twisted.
Sasha Frolova Leads an Exceptional Ensemble Cast
Sasha Frolova stars as Joan, delivering a performance that is both believable and compelling. She’s easy to root for throughout the film, especially as she contends with her father’s unwaveringly loyal housekeeper Lydia, brilliantly played by Toby Poser. Mia Vallet’s portrayal of Emily is also noteworthy, commanding attention from her first appearance all the way to the end. Kimball Farley plays Lydia’s son and Joan’s friend Todd with the perfect balance of levity and tension. Frankie Seratch is enjoyable to watch as the opportunistic nepo baby art dealer Tom. Rounding out the cast is Xander Berkeley as Lawrence; even from behind a mask, his performance is intense and chilling. Berkeley even provided some of his own art to be used in the film.
Sound Design and Cinematography Create Unrelenting Terror
The cast is far from the film’s only strength, though. Sound design by Matthew Rollins will have you death-gripping your seat in the best way, and serves as an integral part of the story itself. Production designer Yulanda Yo-Rong Shieh and art director Ana María Kalvo absolutely nailed the set and made the Wyatt family mansion simultaneously sprawling and claustrophobic.
Finally, we have the beautiful and (appropriately) haunting cinematography by Bryce Holden, supported by the editing prowess of Nik Voytas, Josh Lobo, and Henry Chaisson. Not only did they maintain an air of unrelenting suspense throughout the entire film, but they also executed some of the most disturbing and bone-chilling jump scares I’ve seen in recent years.
Seriously: One of those jump scares made me feel physically ill. You’ll know it when you see it for yourself.
Recluse had its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival 2026.
One of my favorite special interests is the Mormon-millionaire-real-estate-tycoon-owned Skinwalker Ranch. Mormon millionaire Brandon Fugal has crafted a wonderfully apophenic history in his post-Bigelow ownership. His perfectly curated release of pseudo-information through the lens of a History Channel TV show did wonders not just for his wallet but for docu-dramas as a whole. Fugal did what The Curse of Oak Island could have only wished to accomplish. BUT, three years before Joseph Smith’s teachings made their way to the Uinta Basin, a group of filmmakers set out to capitalize on one of America’s strangest phenomena. Skinwalker Ranch is a film that is as perplexing as it is insufferable.
Skinwalker Ranch: Missing Children, UFOs, and Found Footage Chaos
In 2010, Hoyt’s (Jon Gries) son disappeared in a blinding ball of light. Some time later, Modern Defense Enterprises sent a team of experts to Hoyt’s property to study what happened to Cody (Nash Lucas). Upon arriving at the property, MDE sets up a reality-TV-like number of security cameras in the hopes of finding anything. But what they found may just make them wish they hadn’t set foot on this property.
The Real History Behind Skinwalker Ranch Lore
As stated, the story of and behind Skinwalker Ranch is one of my favorite bits of Americana. From the Sherman family’s story, through Robert Bigelow’s ownership, all the way to its current Mormon occupation, the history behind Skinwalker Ranch runs deep. Dire wolves, dino beavers, and disappearing orbs, oh my! Whether you believe in the stories or not, Skinwalker Ranch is one of America’s biggest pieces of lore.
One of my favorite theories is that a resource-observing beacon was placed by, for lack of a better term, aliens when Pangea existed. Throughout the years, the dissolution of Pangea shifted the location of where the aliens placed the beacon to what is now considered the Mesa on the northern portion of Skinwalker Ranch’s property. The said beacon could very possibly be what causes the mysterious 1.6 GHz signal on the ranch, or why there are so many UAP sightings around the Mesa.
How Skinwalker Ranch Wastes Its Fascinating Premise
Now, I know all of this has been discovered post-Skinwalker Ranch (movie), but Hunt for the Skinwalker and Skinwalkers at the Pentagon, by Colm Kelleher and George Knapp (and James T. Lacatski for Pentagon), had already been released. Dino beavers on Skinwalker Ranch had already been discussed. The true terror of Skinwalker Ranch had been disseminated by three highly regarded UFOlogists. So, for writer Adam Ohler (and story by Devin McGinn, Steve Berg, Ken Bretschneider, and Murphy Michaels) to craft such a plain story that doesn’t even scratch the surface of what makes Skinwalker Ranch even slightly interesting is confounding. It feels as if the writer/story creators heard the term “Skinwalker Ranch” and decided to focus on that, and that alone. Skinwalker Ranch has zero world-building, and hopes that the title is titillating enough to get someone to click ‘play’.
The singular great aspect about Skinwalker Ranch is the casting of Jon Gries (Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite) and Michael Horse (Deputy Hawk in Twin Peaks). Gries does enough carrying in this film to make up for dropping that winning pass. And it’s just wonderful to see Michael Horse in a film, even if he’s cast as a token Native American whose only purpose is to make the writers feel better for capitalizing on Native American lore. Besides that, the acting in Skinwalker Ranch is beyond atrocious. In fact, the acting feels so unnatural that I honestly thought the team from MDE was going to turn out to be the aliens that kidnapped Cody. Turns out, the story doesn’t even attempt to be 1% as clever as that.
A Massive Found Footage Failure
Skinwalker Ranch not only fails at being an interesting sci-fi horror flick, but it also fails at being a found footage flick. Full of awful CGI, bad acting, and an even worse script, Skinwalker Ranch exists as nothing more than a time waster. In fact, Travis Walton’s experience in Fire in the Sky would be more entertaining to take part in than watching even two minutes of this film–I’d rather get dry probed by the Hyperboreans than ever think of this movie again.
