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Isolation
DIR/WRI: Billy O'Brien • PROD: Bertrand
Faivre, Ed Guiney, Ruth Kenley-Letts • DOP: Robbie Ryan
• ED: Justinian Buckley • DES: Paul Inglis •
CAST: Essie Davis, Sean Harris, Marcel Iures, Crispin Letts,
John Lynch, Ruth Negga, Stanley Townsend
Something strange is happening on Dan Reilly's
farm. In a desperate attempt to make ends meet, he has allowed
scientist John to test fertility drugs on his cattle. But the
experiment doesn't go according to plan, leaving Dan (John Lynch)
and young couple Mary (Ruth Negga) and Jamie (Sean Harris) to
wade through lakes of slurry stalking a startling bovine mutation.
Although it is a low-budget horror film,
Isolation has a cold beauty, like the light seeping between
the corrugated iron of the cowshed roofs. The film is a visually
arresting debut feature for Billy O'Brien, following his highly
impressive short The Tale of the Rat that Wrote. It
shares a number of the earlier film's key crew, including
Irish cinematographer Robbie Ryan and production designer
Paul Inglis. Much credit must go to these two individuals
for giving the farm a chill, haunted atmosphere. The dirtied-down
surfaces and muted palette provide an ideal illustration of
the unromantic and industrial side of farming O'Brien was
keen to capture.
It is inevitable that Isolation will
be described as Alien meets Glenroe, and certainly
much of its plot and devices are familiar from other films
such as the Alien franchise (particularly David Fincher's
stark Alien 3) and The Terminator. But what
makes Isolation different from blockbuster sci-fi titles
like these is the setting – a run-of-the-mill Irish farm.
The film's most horrifying scenes are its unblinking depiction
of bovine anal and vaginal insertion, close-ups of a hypodermic
needle breaching a vein, and stomach-churning cow autopsies.
These may be more commonplace events than the appearance of
killer space creatures or maniacal robots from the future,
but they are all the more horrifying because of it.
Isolation will not be to everyone's
taste. Although it is beautifully made, it is still an unflinchingly
bloody and messy horror film largely unrelieved by humour
or lighter moments. Almost all of the action takes place on
the farm itself, with oppressive, suffocating results; the
five characters are 'flawed', unsympathetic, and therefore
generally quite believable. Despite the ridiculous (on paper)
premise of killer cows, Isolation is no Dead Meat;
it is closer in tone to harrowing endurance-fests such as
Wolf Creek. So, you have been warned: Give the popcorn
a miss, leave your little sister at home, and don't make plans
to go for a burger afterwards!
Lir Mac Cárthaigh
Rated
16 (see IFCO
website for details)
Isolation is released on 29th September 2006.
See interview with writer/director Billy O'Brien and actor
John Lynch here.
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