Label: Scream Factory/IFC Midnight
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 95 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.40:1)
Director: David Freyne
Cast: Ellen Page, Sam Keeley, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Stuart Graham, Paula Malcomson
For his directorial debut writer/director David Freyne went with a well worn sub-genre of horror, the zombie/infected film, a genre that has been nearly played-out, so much so that I groan a little bit when a new one hits the shelves. However, credit where credit is due, Freyne proves you can offer something new to the rage-infected genre with this quietly intense indie horror-drama in the vein of 28 Days Later. It opens by setting up the world, Ireland has been ravaged for several years (at least four though it's not outright defined) by a plague known as The Maze Virus. Those that were infected - through the usual means; bites and bodily fluids - turned onto violent, flesh-munching psychos, but by the time the film opens a cure has been devised and administered to the infected, and about seventy-five percent of the formerly infected have been cured and rehabilitated in government facilities, but their transition back into society is fraught with multi-faceted issues. The infected are cursed to have all the memories of the horrible, uncontrollable violence they committed while they were infected, adding to the complications are that not all of the non-infected survivors are willing to forgive and forget what "the cured" did while they were infected, treating them as second class citizen or worse, no different or better than the infected.
The story focuses in one of the afflicted survivors named Senan (Sam Keeley, This Must Be The Place) as he leaves the government run rahab facility and is taken in by his sympathetic sister-in-law, an American named Abbie (Ellen Page, Inception) who is the widow of his late brother who perished during the virus outbreak. Senan is haunted by the recurring memories of his infected rage-state and the terrible things he did, one act in particular he hides away from Abbie, knowing it would threaten their tenuous relationship. While he was still living in the facility Senan befriended an intense man named Conor (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor), who while infected was a bit of a alpha-wolf to the horde of infected, a once prominent lawyer who been disowned by his father and has been reduced to the menial task of sweeping the streets, and he's resentment for this downturn in life.
It turns out that about twenty-five percent of the infected are resistant to the cure and remain in a rage state, remaining locked away in a prison-like government facility, where Dr. Joan Lyons (Paula Malcomson) continues to work on a new strain of the cure she hopes will return the resistant to a non-rage state. However, public opinion and military leaders leans towards humanely killing the cure-resistant infected which, which allows Conor to marshal other like-minded cured into a full-on insurrection, preaching that once the resistant are killed the cured will be next, and he's probably not wrong about that, the film does a decent job building that tension.
As infected films go this one is sort of subdued, it's dealing with the personal, emotional and societal impact in the aftermath of The Maze Virus, focusing in on the characters of Senan and Conor as they both deal with life after the virus, each coping with what they've done in different ways, struggling to reintegrate back into or lash out at a prejudiced society who has turned against them. Conor's the extremist of the pair, while Senan chooses a more redemptive approach, choosing to stay on at the government facility to aid the search for a new cure for the resistant infected. For a small budget movie the film is keen on big ideas with some nice world-building happening in the background all the while, which it does without over-stretching it's indie budget.
While the film does eventually go a more typical infected route at the end with the hordes of resistant being unleashed the film really digs into the more quietly intense drama of the situation as it explores the ideas and emotional toll, largely without the usually requisite gore, though it does get a nice punch of blood and action at the end. I found that the themes and ideas explored stayed with me after watching it, which is more than I can say for most indie zombie/infected films I watched these days.
The single-disc Blu-ray arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory in association with IFC Midnight in 1080p HD framed in 2:40:1 widescreen, audio comes by way of both surround and stereo English DTS-HD MA mixes with optional English subtitles. Extras on the disc are limited to a making-of piece and trailer, plus this release comes with a sleeve of reversible artwork.
Special Features:
- Behind the Scenes Featurette (6 min) HD
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min) HD
The Cured (2018) is not a typical infected film, it's thoughtful and nuanced, the cast is uniformly good, it while it lacks some visceral punch you might be expecting from the sub-genre. I think that if you're looking for something familiar but also trying to do something different this is worth checking out, but if you're just looking for some rage-carnage with oodles of gore you might wanna look elsewhere.
Label: Scream Factory I IFC Midnight
release Date: April 5th 2016
Region Code: A
Duration: 97 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Surround 5.1, DTS-HD MA Stereo 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Corin Hardy
Cast: Michael Smiley, Stuart Graham, Bojana Novakovic, Gary Lydon, Joseph Mawle, Michael McElhatton
Adam (Joseph Mawle, Game of Thrones) is a London-based conservationist, who along with his wife Clare (Bojana Novakovic, Drag Me To Hell) and infant son Finn, travel to a remote village in Ireland where Adam has been assigned to survey the area before the deeply wooded area is opened up to logging. The decision to open up the area to the logging industry has upset the ocals in the area, particularly a neighbor named Colm (Michael McElhatton), who warns Adam to avoid venturing into the woods with his infant son, warning that his own daughter Clara disappeared year earlier after having wandered into the woods alone. The locals believe malevolent woodland spirits they call The Hallow live in the woods and that Adam's excursion into the lush forests will disturb them, which is exactly what happens.
Adam being from the city doesn't pay much heed to speak of evil woodland spirits, and when a window in his son's room is broken out one night he believes it is just an angry Colm trying to scare him away, but as the story continues it becomes much harder to turn a blind eye to the demonic creatures who seem to be out to steal away his infant son from him and his wife.
The movie comes to us from first time director Corin Hardy and it is quite a debut, a dark fairytale along the lines of Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth or Don't Be afraid of the Dark, the movie features a gorgeous Irish wooded backdrop, some palpable atmosphere and some very cool creatures which are damn creepy. All good stuff, but the movie does start off with a bit of a slow build, taking nearly forty minutes before it gets a proper head of steam going, and during that phase the woodland spirits are only hinted, but once they do make themselves known things get underway with some proper scares, though the movie not very terrifying, instead offering some good suspense filled tension and drama.
Where the movie excels is the Irish folklore angle of the story, far too often we as horror fans are inundated with sun-shy blood drinkers and the hungry undead, woodland spirits are found far and few between and I think it makes a ripe subject. Hardin does a good job of bringing some Irish folk horror to the small screen, and is largely successful. Adding a scientific element to the story along the way, when Adam discovers a strange black slime that can infect a person and transform them, which plays out during the final third of the movie, leaving our young parents not just under attack from woodland spirits but also trying to evade the malicious black slime which seems to a mind of its own, which was a nice touch, this part of the story brought o mind the unsung indie horror Splinter from 2008, which is worth seeking out f you have not come across it on your own.
Both Mawle and Novakovic do good work as parents desperately trying to protect their infant son from the demonic horde of woodland creatures with an appropriate amount of concern and dread, though Mawle as Adam does take a bit of while o come around to the idea that there's more going on than just an angry neighbor out to give them a fright, but I am not sure woodland spirits would be the first thing that would come to my mind either, but even just thinking an angry neighbor was causing a fuss would have scared me off early on.
While the scares are a bit thin the movie does not want for suspense and tension, plus those creature make-up f/x are fantastic, Hardin largely forgoes digital in favor of old school performers in rubber suits with some digital enhancement, and it totally worked for me, this is creepy stuff, and there's just not enough folk horror out there these days, so this is a welcome addition.
Audio/Video: The Hollow arrives on Blu-ray from IFC Midnight and Scream Factory presented in the scope 2.35 aspect ratio looking nice and sharp in HD. The movie has a lot of dark scenes so that the shadow detail is so nice was much appreciated. The English DTS-HD MA Surround 5.1 was a nice treat, plenty of use of the surrounds to put across the creepy creature sounds and atmospheric score, optional English and Spanish subtitles are provided.
Onto the extras we have an informative audio commentary from Director Corin Hardy who covers a lot of ground about the making of the creature feature, plus a nearly hour long making of doc, and seven smaller 2-3 minute behind-the-scenes featurettes covering the story, influences, F/X and galleries of sketch drawings and storyboards for the movie, which seem to be smaller bite-size chunks straight from the making-of doc. Aside from a theatrical trailer for the movie we also get a reversible sleeve of artwork featuring the cool original poster artwork and a slipcover for the standard issue blue keep case
Special Features
- Audio Commentary With Director Corin Hardy
- Surviving The Fairytale: The Making Of The Hallow (51 Mins) HD
- Behind-The-Scenes: The Story (3 Mins) HD
- Behind-The-Scenes: Influence (2 Mins) HD
- Behind-The-Scenes: Practical F/X (2 Mins) HD
- Director's Storyboards Gallery (2 Mins) HD
- Director's Sketchbook Gallery (3 Mins) HD
- The Book Of Invasions – Original Illustrations Gallery (3 Mins) HD
- Creature Concepts Gallery (1 Mins) HD
- Theatrical Trailer (2 Mins) HD
- Reversible Sleeve of Artwork
The Hollow (2015) is an engaging folk horror entry that has a wonderful dark fairytale atmosphere about it, for a first time director I would say this was a knockout minus a few pacing issues early on, but it makes up for with an engaging story and Irish folklore premise, highly recommended. 4/5
