A small town cop comes across an injured man on a highway and brings him back to the hospital. However, he soon realizes that bringing him there was a mistake. By bringing the man there he’s put himself and the others in the hospital in danger as a mysterious cult surrounds the outside, while a hellish creature invades the inside.
The Void comes off as a triple combination of The Thing, Assault on Precinct 13, and Hellraiser. The movie starts out really good with an opening that grabs your attention, after the characters are introduced the cult then comes in. And the cult people are actually kind of freaky looking. They are basically dressed similarly to the KKK but only have a black triangle in the facial area.

The way they are used is well-done and creepy. We mostly see them standing outside in the dark, knives in hand, and attack anyone who is outdoors. The creature that comes into play bares some similarities to the “the thing” but as far as that goes, we don’t get a very good glimpse of it in full. It’s menacing enough but very underused. Fortunately it’s not the only horrific creature in the movie. Even creepier ones come into play towards the end. That said, I almost wish this was more about the cult, because they were more chilling than the creatures. Both are pretty freaky, but they should have chosen one or the other. It felt a bit too much cramming them both into this movie and makes it really unfocused.

The story in general isn’t anything special. It’s not boring, but had this primarily been about these hooded figures and these potential victims, it would have been better. Instead it’s just another story of bringing hell on Earth and resurrection. It also has some great gore and practical effects, but it doesn’t use them for the sake of being gory, and it doesn’t linger on it very long. Quite simply, the script just tries to be too much and that hurts it a lot, despite having potential to be good. It has a great setting, a creepy tone to it, great villains, and some pretty horrific imagery. But like I said, I would have preferred them to make more about the cult, or even if it was just about the creatures and hell aspect, at least it would have been more focused.

While the script wasn’t satisfying, the acting and character are worse. The acting is just so weak from everyone involved, and the characters are just boring, unlikeable, uninteresting, and you just don’t care about them. And some of the major characters aren’t even well-developed.

I’m not saying I don’t recommend this, it is worth watching, and maybe you’ll like it more than I did for what it is. Despite the overall great look of the film, I felt it needed to be more focused or give more direction of where it’s headed, and not as quick-paced to the point on being underdeveloped. But mostly I wanted it to be about the cult, but that’s just me.

–Cody Landman