Isolation

Saw Isolation, an Irish horror. It draws from the grotesque body horror of Cronenberg. Set at an isolated (oh ho!) farm, the film starts off making the fairly convincing argument that being a country veterinarian is essentially a horror film. Gross fluids, the threat of ruin, and one damn thing after another conspire to make the whole thing just such a drag. Then it's revealed that on top of horrid genetic diseases and still-born calves, this farm in particular has been cooperating with the neighbourhood mad scientist who is preforming genetic testing on the cows.

Interestingly, the cows are very much a part of the film. I assumed they would provide the beginning of the film's monster and then just disappear. Instead they stick around for most of the film, being victims of the monster and symbolizing the life-blood of the farm. Also interesting was the dual demonization of science and nature. The film opens on rusted signs, hanging sheeting, splattery cow-births. The plot derives its believability from the horrors of science, but the imagery and visceral discomfort are pure chaotic nature. There's something clever here as well about the exploitation of animals which ultimately consumes us. It's no message-film, but there's cleverness there.

The film is pretty ghastly. It's tense and pleasantly frustrating. There's one sequence where the farmer drives his tractor right into a bog that made no sense to me (maybe I missed the explanation?) but for the most part the action is well motivated and the characters well drawn (except for the mad scientist, but I guess we need a human monster as well.) The ending twist is a bit predictable, but whatever. A nice little film. It mines the premise and the setting for everything its got. Also I had to resort to the volume knob once more, so you can be sure it's at least more scary than a Disney film.