Dir - Steven Kostanski/Jeremy Gillespie
Overall: MEH
The first non-schlocky outing from the Canadian production company Astron-6, (though because it is non-shlocky, it is not presented under said production company name), The Void is a technically impressive, crowdfunded film by writer/director team Steven Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie. Not conforming to using terrible CGI as every other horror or otherwise movie has been doing for years now, the film's devotion to practical effects is meritable. They are clearly Rob Bottin/Rick Baker inspired and look rather superb, representing a successful throwback element that does not rear the entire movie into unfortunate nostalgia territory for its own sake. There is a whole mess of other familiar influences thrown into the brew to be sure and some may come off as more lazy than others. A lot is done correctly though with these ingredients, keeping the mystery compelling and the gore factor high for the first half or so. The heaping pile of cliched story elements suffocates everything though. Too many ideas fail to mesh well together and others receive no payoff. The movie ends up leaving a giant mess behind in its wake, though because it's a fun ride up until a point and even here or there afterwards, it can still be recommended as a well-intended near-miss.
Dir - Ali Abbasi
Overall: GOOD
For the first many minutes of Iranian-born Ali Abbasi's full-length debut Shelley, you would be hard pressed to be able to tell it is any kind of horror movie, outside of the very subtle clues sprinkled around. The only complaint may be the use of sinister sounding music at random occasions where as always, the use of silence would have been more unsettling. That aside, Abbasi intentionally strays far away from what we have been accustomed to expect from such genre films, bypassing many of the typical beats and setups. Describing the film on paper, it certainly qualifies and even borrows from many other works you could easily spot, but the execution of it at least presents everything from a different angle. Ambiguous storytelling can often be appreciated if you become convinced that the filmmakers actually know what they are doing, as opposed to just fucking with us because they are too lazy to get their plot straight, (cough It Follows cough). In this regard, Abbasi excels. As a viewer, your sympathies can be placed any number of places here and it is very interesting to be led in a certain direction because you know you are watching a movie, (and a "horror" one at that), only to truly find yourself going over what may or may not actually be going on from a more realistic standpoint. In other words, Shelley pleasantly misleads you into questioning what you expect from horror movies and that is certainly something the genre can benefit from.
Dir - André Øvredal
Overall: MEH
Norwegian Trollhunter director André Øvredal came across the script for The Autopsy of Jane Doe as it was featured on the annual Black List of sought after, un-filmed screenplays. Sadly, Øvredal also went on record as saying that he was inspired by The Conjuring, one of the most genre-adhering to, unimaginative modern horror films there is. This is evident in the final result here, which blows a really, really fantastic premise on a completely safe, by-the-books, boo-scare ridden presentation. The problem with having your horror film be so absolutely textbook and predictable is that your primary goal is to frighten your audience by creating an aura of dread and mystery. When you can spot every bit of foreshadowing immediately though, when every loud jump is set up exactly as it is in every other movie, when you can correctly guess every scary thing that is about to happen, this can be seen as a problem. These are popcorn horror movies, ones that rely entirely on their synopsis to be strong enough to have it play out in the most familiar, user-friendly way possible so your film trailer looks good and everyone can scream when they are expecting to. This is a shame as the story itself here seems thoroughly deserving of a less stale, crowd-pleasing delivery.
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