|
|
|
|
Isolation is the story of an experiment that goes horribly wrong on a remote Irish farm
that five individuals are forced to deal with. The owner of the farm, Dan, played by
John Lynch, has let a company that conducts experiments on animals use his farm as
their testing grounds as they alter genes and impregnate a cow. The veterinarian, Orla
(Essie Davis) has an obvious history with Dan and suggested to her superior, John
(Marcel Lures) who is a scientist, to ask Dan if he would be willing to allow the genetic
research company to use his farm for their experiments and get paid doing so.
In addition to the aforementioned characters, we also have thrown into the mix a
couple that are hiding out in a camper just off of Dan’s property, but at the edge of
his gate. The couple, Mary (Ruth Negga) and Jaimie (Sean Harris), is hiding out from
some people that are after Jaimie. During a particular crucial moment in the birth of
the baby calve, Dan needs assistance and asks for help from Jaimie. Jaimie decides to
assist him and they both work to get the stuck calve out of the mother.
Having no experiences on a rural farm and being a city boy all my life, it truly was a
unique yet graphic experience to watch the technique and bloody gore that entailed
pulling a calve out from the mother’s body as it was twisted up inside and tearing the
female cow’s insides all up. I really squirmed more than once during this portion of the
film. I loved it! The film had so many realistically graphic and disturbing scenes
throughout the whole film. This was definitely one of them.
Each scene was beautifully shot with truly unique camera angles and shots. The scenes
were so suspenseful and director Billy O’Brien did an excellent job of creating tension
and wonderment as to what was going to happen next. Nothing about this film was
predictable. I was yearning to find out what would happen next with each and every
scene. There were no points in the film that dragged on and had me bored. I was on
the edge of my seat throughout the entire film.
As far as creature feature films go, as this most surely is one of them, it is top-notch.
The film tosses the question into the air of ‘how far should science and research go to
genetically modify creatures to create more fertile offspring that would grow quicker,
stronger, produce better quality of milk, etc…’ Offhand, this film reminded me of
tension and graphic creativity and special effects that Toby Wilkins’ Splinter had, but
with a much smaller budget. Both films had a truly one of-a-kind creature in them that
seemed unstoppable. Both films had awesome visual effects, Splinter probably more
so, but Isolation had some of the best cinematography I have seen in a horror film,
provided by Robbie Ryan.
The film has won 7 awards and been nominated for 2. I am wondering why it did not
win those 2 awards that it was only nominated for. I really enjoyed this film for its
acting, cinematography, visual effects, gore, blood, and excellent sound. It really had
some superb sound effects when bones were breaking, skin was ripping, or teeth were
crunching and tearing up flesh. Ruth Negga and John Lynch did an incredible job as the
two leads. There characters were completely believable and natural as hell on the
screen. They both did a marvelous job and were very well suited for their characters.
This is one of the best horror films to come out of Ireland that I have seen in quite
awhile.
|
| |
|
|
The quality of the transfer of the film was impeccable. The colors were rich and full
and I saw no errors or discoloration at any point in the film. I have no complaints here
at all.
|
| |
|
|
As I said earlier, the sounds of the bones crunching, teeth chewing, and a cow giving
birth to a bloody and slimy calve sliding out from its mothers body was disgustingly
graphic and every detail was heard clearly. At times, I wish the sound were not so
crystal clear because there was some horrible sound effects that were caught on mic
that I would have rather not heard.
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
There is a trailer for the film, some comments and insights by cast and crew, including
words from the director Billy O’Brien, producer Ruth Kenley-Letts, and Marcel Lures,
Ruth Negga, and John Lynch. There also is some insight given in regards to the
production design and effects with producer Ruth Kenley-Letts, director Billy O’Brien,
actor Marcel Iures, Paul Inglis, and the creature designers. There is a lot of praise by
cast and crew towards Robbie Ryan and it is rightly so. He did a phenomenal job
behind the camera. I really am a stickler for films that don’t have audio commentaries
on them. The special features that they had were fairly decent, but I really would
have enjoyed a commentary with the director, as well as the cinematographer. I really
wanted to hear Robbie Ryan talk about his technique and reasons as to why he filmed
scenes a certain way. Both features ran between 10 and 15 minutes in duration.
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
I would definitely recommend buying this film, even if there is not an audio
commentary and the extra features were a tad bit on the light side, for the film looks
flawless on the screen, has terrific sound, and is a bang-up creature feature with an
original plot and marvelous camera work. The creatures in the film looked very cool
and there are loads of suspense and thrills to creep the hell out of viewers. This film is
quite possibly the best thing to come out of Ireland since Guinness.
|
|
