SPOILERS *************************************************** The movie is basically Alien on a farm, and for the first 3/4 of the movie it is taut, well acted, and well executed to the point of being riveting. The concept itself is very clever because in 2007, probably very few people have been on a working farm and seen a calf born. That makes the overall environment about as unfamiliar (and hence potentially ominous) as the Nostromo.
It would have been a really great movie if they had managed to continue all this and kept the plot under control. Unfortunately, perhaps because of the budget, they could not.
You end up with a handful of people in a setting in which a dangerous critter must be confined before it destroys the world. You are not in the depths of space without help available. You are on a farm in Ireland. Do you get help, call for the cavalry, Isolate (hint hint, it's the title of the movie) the farm, quarantine the area, and bring in the Irish equivalent of the CDC? No you do not. In this movie you drive a tractor into a pond where the critters are and begin to undertake a series of completely idiotic and irrational actions. Which unfortunately undoes one of the strengths of the first part of the movie which is that the characters are both rational and self interested and therefore memorably realistic in spite of their odd personal traits.
It's almost as if someone said, "Hey, we need to have the woman crawling around in an enclosed space in the muck and then smack the critter just like Sigourney did." And the plot was thereby bent to make this happen. Never mind that the nasties were running around eating everything in sight, the Mama couldn't handle a young woman with a small club. And since there were already critters loose all over the place what was the big deal about getting rid of the calf vs getting help?
Did anyone guess how this would end? Gosh, wasn't that a shock? Who would have guessed that it would.... well, I won't spoil that one but unless this is the first creature feature you've ever seen you will know exactly how it ends 20 minutes before it does.
I recommend the movie for the first part. It's well worth it. Just don't have your expectations up for the last 15-20 minutes. A real shame in a sense, because it could have been absolutely stunning if they had been a bit more creative in their thinking, or perhaps better financed.
It would have been a really great movie if they had managed to continue all this and kept the plot under control. Unfortunately, perhaps because of the budget, they could not.
You end up with a handful of people in a setting in which a dangerous critter must be confined before it destroys the world. You are not in the depths of space without help available. You are on a farm in Ireland. Do you get help, call for the cavalry, Isolate (hint hint, it's the title of the movie) the farm, quarantine the area, and bring in the Irish equivalent of the CDC? No you do not. In this movie you drive a tractor into a pond where the critters are and begin to undertake a series of completely idiotic and irrational actions. Which unfortunately undoes one of the strengths of the first part of the movie which is that the characters are both rational and self interested and therefore memorably realistic in spite of their odd personal traits.
It's almost as if someone said, "Hey, we need to have the woman crawling around in an enclosed space in the muck and then smack the critter just like Sigourney did." And the plot was thereby bent to make this happen. Never mind that the nasties were running around eating everything in sight, the Mama couldn't handle a young woman with a small club. And since there were already critters loose all over the place what was the big deal about getting rid of the calf vs getting help?
Did anyone guess how this would end? Gosh, wasn't that a shock? Who would have guessed that it would.... well, I won't spoil that one but unless this is the first creature feature you've ever seen you will know exactly how it ends 20 minutes before it does.
I recommend the movie for the first part. It's well worth it. Just don't have your expectations up for the last 15-20 minutes. A real shame in a sense, because it could have been absolutely stunning if they had been a bit more creative in their thinking, or perhaps better financed.