REVIEWED - ISOLATIONIsolation is a tense and timely horror thriller, writes Michael Dwyer
THE debased horror movie genre - reduced mostly to knowing, nudging parodies - gets back to basics and is infused with genuine contemporary fears by Irish writer-director Billy O'Brien in his imaginative and unsettling first feature, which is set on a remote Irish farm.
Respecting genre form, O'Brien wastes no time in setting up several ominous incidents. In desperation to save his financially struggling farm, Dan Reilly (John Lynch), agrees to some of his cattle undergoing tests organised by a sinister genetic scientist (Marcel Iures). Orla (Essie Davis), a vet who happens to be Reilly's ex-girlfriend, participates in the experiment.
As a cow experiences great difficulty in calving, Orla is alarmed when her hand is ripped while inside the animal. Following a ritual unfamiliar to urban dwellers (the farmer swings the calf around his head to get it to breathe) it transpires that the calf was born pregnant.
The narrative involves just two other characters: a couple of runaway lovers (Ruth Negga and Sean Harris), who have parked their caravan on Reilly's land and are drawn into the escalating crisis.
Crucially for its credibility, Isolation is rooted in realism. There is a timely pertinence to the film's principal theme, the consequences of tampering with nature, in the aftermath of sheep-cloning experiments and the last outbreak of mad cow disease in these islands, and in the equally relevant context of movies (Super Size Me, Fast Food Nation) tackling the dangers inherent in the production of fast food.
Although its most graphic imagery is not easy to stomach, Isolation is relatively restrained for its genre, and all the more effective for that, although O'Brien exhibits a keen ability to shock or make the skin crawl when he chooses.
Employing an effectively layered sound design, he establishes and sustains a climate of fear. The atmosphere is enhanced by Robbie Ryan's dexterous handheld camerawork and dark lighting. Isolation offers a flash of light relief only at the very end, closing with tongue firmly in cheek on a country song titled I'm Going to Make You Love Me Till the Cows Come Home.
