BARE BONES: THE LAIR (2022)

THE LAIR (2022)

RAF pilot Lt. Kate Sinclair (Charlotte Kirk) is on a mission in Afghanistan when she is shot down in the middle of the desert. Forced to evade pursuers, she runs into an abandoned Russian bunker. Inside she finds containers filled with strange humanoid creatures, who are accidentally released when her Afghani pursuers find her. She is rescued by a squad of allied soldiers who must now fight for their lives against these mysterious and very vicious creatures.

 

Flick is directed by Neil Marshall (The Descent) from his derivative script along with star Charlotte Kirk. It’s simply a very bad movie with ideas taken from many better flicks, even mimicking Marshall’s own far superior The Descent when the action moves to the bunker. The Lair feels more like a rip-off, where in contrast, Marshall’s Doomsday had the definite feel of homage, where, in that case, the familiarity was intentional. The acting, especially from the supporting cast is terrible with each character doing accents that one can only guess what country they are supposed to represent. The make-up and gore FX are fine enough with the creatures being adequate but forgettable human-alien hybrids. The CGI is quite cheap looking, as are the minimal sets in the sparse locations. In fact, the whole production has a bargain basement feel to it. Like one of those cheesy made for SYFY channel movies. It’s very disappointing coming from the man who made The Descent which is one of the best horrors of the early 2000s, not to mention the engaging period action/adventure Centurion and the before-mentioned homage Doomsday. Between this and the disappointing The Reckoning, one wonders what has happened to the once reliable Marshall. Flick is now available on streaming and VOD networks and will arrive on home media in December.

 

MZNJ Personal Note: I wonder if Lt. Kate Sinclair is related to future-set Doomsday heroine Eden Sinclair? Her mother perhaps?

 

 

-MonsterZero NJ

BARE BONES: THE RECKONING (2021)

THE RECKONING (2021)

Period thriller takes place in 1665 during The Great Plague of London. Pretty wife and mother Grace (Charlotte Kirk) is widowed when the sickness takes her husband (Joe Anderson). Her landlord Squire Pendleton (Steven Waddington) requests a lecherous way for her to pay her rent and when she refuses, he accuses her of witchcraft and has her arrested. In the dungeons, a battle of wills thus takes place as cruel and sadistic inquisitor John Moorcroft (Sean Pertwee) tries to get a resistant Grace to confess to the false charges.

Violent and tedious flick is directed by Neil Marshall (The Descent, Centurion) from his script along with star Charlotte Kirk and Edward Evers-Swindell. As such, it starts out interesting, but degenerates into a dull torture show, for the next hour, as Moorcroft gets crueler and crueler to get Grace to confess. There are some interesting nightmare sequences, which are effective, and like most Marshall flicks there is a healthy amount of blood and gore. There are even some feminist messages mixed in with all the cruelty, about the treatment of woman at that time and about abusive relationships. Flick does pick up a bit in the last act, when it turns into an action/revenge flick with Grace turning the tables and getting some payback. Charlotte Kirk and Sean Pertwee do give strong performances, which add a little weight, as does Christopher Drake’s strong score. Overall, kind of disappointing, considering Marshall’s previous flicks were all very entertaining to one degree or another and his Game of Thrones episodes were quite good, as well. Available on Amazon Prime, if you want to give it a look.

-MonsterZero NJ