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.
