Since the entirety of October is officially Halloween this year (shut up, you!), we at Psycho Drive-In have decided to attempt to fill the month with thirty-one recommendations for horror-related movies, comics, books, TV shows, toys, games, and everything in-between. It’s gonna be a grab-bag of goodies we feel you should be exposed to, whether you like it or not! But don’t expect your standard suggestions for Halloween fun, we’re digging into some stuff that we love in the hopes that you might make this October a little bit weirder than usual.
Weirder in a good way. Not like what’s going on outside in the hellscape of 2020.
Here’s a Halloween treat that received a lot of critical acclaim when it first hit screens and has bafflingly seemed to fall into obscurity. The Void starts out as a formulaic “cult in a small town” movie before quickly escalating into a full blown Lovecraftian nightmare. The plot revolves around a sheriff’s deputy forced to bring a prisoner to a rural, soon to be closed, hospital where his estranged wife is a nurse. When a separate patient is violently and inexplicably murdered by another nurse, the night quickly takes a turn for the worse. Now, surrounded by hooded cultists and trapped inside with grotesque horrors, the survivors have to battle their own emotions as well as the monsters around them.
The writing and casting are both amazing while the cinematography and lightning pull you inexorably into the screen. In moments of total silence, imagined safety, you find yourself on the edge of your seat holding your breath. The third act becomes a bit psychedelic and high concept with scenes reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, but the overall narrative and pace are spot on.
Meanwhile, the practical effects are some of the best and most unsettling I’ve seen in years. Troy James as the Sleepwalker is particularly unnerving as this veteran creature actor is also a contortionist whose body seems to defy the laws of nature. Flayed men, body modification, and Eldritch abominations that would make H.P. Lovecraft quiver all feature prominently in the film.
The Void hits all the marks being both gruesome enough to titillate any gorehound while having a high concept ending that will appeal to the smuggest horror hipster. An ominous and, at times, larger than life score punctuates the movie and completes the unsettling atmosphere.
The Void is available wherever you stream movies and it’s well worth a watch this Halloween.