Isolation

If you enjoy movies like Day of Animals, Food of the Gods, or even Night of the Lepus… sorry, Isolation is not nearly as much fun as any of those frightfully silly b-flicks.

The solemn story follows Dan Reilly (John Lynch), a destitute Irish dairy farmer who grudgingly allows one of his last healthy cows to serve as a guinea pig for diabolical DNA fetal experiments. As the ill-fated bovine goes into labor late one night, Dan finds a couple of shady squatters (Ruth Negga, Sean Harris) on his property. The unsuspecting duo are roped in to help with the delivery. Along for the sci-fi scares are the hard-hearted geneticist (Marcel Iures) and an employee (Essie Davis) of the biotech company. Now that the five possible victims are assembled, the horror begins.

Kind of.

The low-budget movie uses so much darkness and murk to disguise the fact that they couldn't afford good special effects, that's it impossible to see what's going on most of the time. (Look at Neil Marshall's The Descent to see darkness done right.) When we do see the murderous, mutated calf, it actually looks like a bizarre cocktail shrimp with teeth, so perhaps its best we're kept in the dark most of the time.

The acting is decent and the idea is somewhat novel these days, but the lack of suspense and dearth of reasons to care make Isolation a DVD to leave isolated on the shelf.

Isolation has shown at various film festivals around the world, most notably in Toronto last fall. This week (October 13-22, 2006) it is showing at the ScreamFest in Los Angeles.

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson