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Pre-Halloween Horror-watching #2: Isolation
Isolation
Genre: Monster/Science Gone Wrong
Director: Billy O'Brian, 2005
Starring: Some E-list, but otherwise very competent, British and Australian actors
TL;DR: Surprisingly fun and atmospheric, despite the title not really having anything to do with the film
This film got added to my Netflix queue from the sheer ridiculousness of the stated concepts. I had been expecting a complete and total trainwreck, especially since the description made it sound more like When Genetically-Altered Cow-Monsters Attack. What I got instead was an overall excellent, tense, atmospheric film that relied more on lighting, silence, and pacing to create the scares than big flashy scares (though there were a couple fo those as well).
One of the classic themes of horror is the representation of current fears and concerns through exaggerated depictions of those fears brought to life. Genetic engineering is a hot political topic in Europe, so it's no surprise that Europeans are fairly fond of genetic engineering disasters in their horror films, and Isolation is a great example.
Unlike, say, ZMD, Isolation tries very hard to make sure that we only know the absolute minimum required of our characters, getting the setup out of the way early, but employing just enough of a verbal touch to get us interested in who the characters are, why they're doing what they're doing, and how they get caught in the madness (which begins pretty frequently). Billy O'Brian does a great job balancing the views we get of the monsters; while I wasn't exactly scared, the concept of the monsters are more than enough to freak out your average joe, and this movie could be rec'd just for that.
Now isn't there a film from the same-ish area in Ireland about mutant sheep? I'll have to look for that one.
Genre: Monster/Science Gone Wrong
Director: Billy O'Brian, 2005
Starring: Some E-list, but otherwise very competent, British and Australian actors
TL;DR: Surprisingly fun and atmospheric, despite the title not really having anything to do with the film
This film got added to my Netflix queue from the sheer ridiculousness of the stated concepts. I had been expecting a complete and total trainwreck, especially since the description made it sound more like When Genetically-Altered Cow-Monsters Attack. What I got instead was an overall excellent, tense, atmospheric film that relied more on lighting, silence, and pacing to create the scares than big flashy scares (though there were a couple fo those as well).
One of the classic themes of horror is the representation of current fears and concerns through exaggerated depictions of those fears brought to life. Genetic engineering is a hot political topic in Europe, so it's no surprise that Europeans are fairly fond of genetic engineering disasters in their horror films, and Isolation is a great example.
Unlike, say, ZMD, Isolation tries very hard to make sure that we only know the absolute minimum required of our characters, getting the setup out of the way early, but employing just enough of a verbal touch to get us interested in who the characters are, why they're doing what they're doing, and how they get caught in the madness (which begins pretty frequently). Billy O'Brian does a great job balancing the views we get of the monsters; while I wasn't exactly scared, the concept of the monsters are more than enough to freak out your average joe, and this movie could be rec'd just for that.
Now isn't there a film from the same-ish area in Ireland about mutant sheep? I'll have to look for that one.