Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

The Void Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 21, 2017

Astron-6 has delighted a certain slice of the general demographic with their comedic send ups of horror films, goofy outings that include Father's Day and Manborg , as well as their at least somewhat less gonzo take on gialli, The Editor, a film which, despite its surface (kind of ridiculous) seriousness, was full of winking subtext for those wise enough to see it. Two of Astron-6’s members, Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski, have now joined to create what is inarguably a comedy free horror opus, the alternately impressive and frankly kind of confusing The Void. As is documented by a huge “thank you” list in the closing credits as well as a making of supplement included on this new Blu-ray release, The Void was crowdfunded, produced on a relatively paltry budget and then being greeted with at least some critical praise in its initial festival screenings. The Void both exploits and defies genre conventions, positing a group of people stranded at a barely functioning rural hospital where all hell breaks loose in what might be described as a Lovecraftian approach. The film has some undeniably impressive special effects work, much of it practical, but the third act especially tips over into such surreality that it may leave some wondering what exactly is transpiring both within and outside of the hospital.

A series of screams emanates from an isolated farmhouse, and soon enough the reason is clear. There are two guys marauding through the place with guns, and without much further ado, shots are fired, leaving a badly wounded woman barely holding on to life in the wintry front yard, while another potential victim high tails it off across an abandoned field. The two apparent villains dispatch the woman by pouring gasoline on her and then setting her on fire, while also mentioning that the escapee won’t get far. It’s an arresting opening sequence and one which quickly establishes an oppressive, if opaque, mood.

The scene then shifts to a deputy named Daniel Carter (Aaron Poole), who’s just kind of hanging out in his patrol car, enjoying a CB conversation with an unidentified woman. Suddenly, the guy we saw running from the farmhouse stumbles out of the woods and falls in front of Carter’s vehicle. Carter assumes it’s just some drunk college kid who’s lost, but when he gets out to investigate, he realizes the guy is seriously wounded, and he calls to his dispatcher to find out where the closest hospital is. It turns out it’s a largely abandoned facility that evidently had a recent fire and which is being staffed by a skeleton crew.

Already Kostanski and Gillespie have created a palpable mood, one that’s remarkable in that until this point at least not that much gore has been depicted. But there’s a bizarre, near hallucinatory, ambience at the hospital, one that’s amped up by some yellow grading (somewhat reminiscent of certain techniques applied—appropriately, given its giallo foundation—in The Editor), and the weird aggregation of both workers and patients found there. Those include Carter’s estranged wife Allison (Kathleen Munroe), in a plot point that seems overly convenient and simultaneously illogical (if Carter knew his wife, estranged or not, worked at a nearby hospital, why would he need to ask dispatch where the nearest hospital was?). Also on hand is the seemingly avuncular Dr. Richard Powell (Kenneth Welsh), who manages to keep everyone, including easily panicked nurse Kim (Ellen Wong), as calm as possible. Another nurse, Beverly (Stephanie Belding), starts attending to the wounded guy, James (Evan Stern), though in the first really disturbing scene in the hospital, she seems to be the first victim to fall prey to—well, something sinister.

Without spoiling some of the surprises The Void has in store, suffice it to say there are invaders both from within, something that involves some pretty spectacular transformations a la Alien, as well as without, courtesy of a gaggle of hooded figures that look like a Hazmat team cosplaying as Ku Klux Klan members (or vice versa). The threats in The Void are in fact one of the film’s problems, for it isn’t made sufficiently clear, at least not early enough to provide a roadmap of sorts for potentially confounded viewers, what exactly these two elements have to do with each other.

While certain plot points are at the least not detailed clearly and at worst are just kind of tossed at the audience like a monster’s enveloping tentacles (that was a mild spoiler, sorry), the film still builds more than sufficient angst as the survivors realize they can’t get out of the hospital due to the hooded figures surrounding the building, but that they’re also in peril inside the hospital, due to the creatures that are suddenly threatening them. The film’s late revelations involving one central character and some evil doin’s in the hospital’s bowels are patently silly, but the creature effects are so viscerally effective that for many horror fans it probably won’t matter all that much.

The occult elements of The Void are actually among the film’s most distinctive, and it might have helped had Gillespie and Kostanski allowed their screenplay to explore a little more of what the villain’s motives and techniques had been. The whole subplot of parents losing children, which is dealt with glancingly at times, could have provided more of an emotional tether with the audience, helping to anchor what is at times a pretty trippy experience. One way or the other, the film is decidedly creepy, especially once the body count starts accruing, but that creepiness often derives more from purely presentational aspects than from any narrative driven angst.

Note: My colleague Brian Orndorf gave The Void a near rave when it had its brief theatrical exhibition. You can read Brian's thoughts here.

The Void Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Void is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Screen Media Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Technical data on this shoot is pretty scarce online, though the film's closing credits mention Canon, and there's some tangential online data mentioning cinematographer Samy Inayeh and some of Canon's digital cameras. One way or the other, this has both the benefits and busts of a lot of contemporary digitally shot films. As can clearly be seen in many (maybe even most) of the screenshots accompanying this review, the film has either been graded or in some cases lit in a variety of hues, including a kind of sickly yellow in the early going and, later, both blues and reds, all of which, when combined with some omnipresent darkness, tend to tamp down detail and especially fine detail levels. When not aggressively graded, and especially when close-ups are employed, detail and fine detail levels perk up noticeably (see screenshot 2). The film commendably lets the audience actually see the creatures at several key moments, and while some of these are (again) quite dark, detail levels are actually rather impressive, at least in passing. Despite the omnipresent gloominess, there are commendably no major compression issues on display, and image instability is similarly not a problem.

The Void Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Void features both a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track, but there's little doubt that audiophiles should opt for the surround track if their home theater setups permit. This is a really fun, immersive track, one that has a glut of LFE rattling through the subwoofer while also offering some nicely pinpointed effects in discrete channels. The score (done by a rather large assortment of people) is also quite interesting and spreads through the surrounds extremely well. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly on this problem free track.

The Void Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Nightmare Logic: The Making of The Void (1080p; 25:41) has some good interviews and especially fun footage of the some the creature fabrication.


• Directors' Commentary


• Visual Effects Commentary


• Theatrical Teaser Trailer (1080p; 1:03)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:42)

The Void Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I absolutely loved The Editor, while I was a bit more conflicted about Father's Day, even if I admired its gonzo sensibilities. I'm not quite sure what exactly to make of The Void, for while it's extremely well crafted and proves that this particular Astron-6 duo certainly have the goods for dramatic fare, it's also curiously underdeveloped in a couple of key aspects, something that might have helped up the emotional impact of things. That said, lovers of good old fashioned monster movies, or even those with certain Lovecraftian occult tendencies, will probably like The Void a good deal. Technical merits are generally strong, and the main making of featurette is very enjoyable. Recommended.