The Veil (2016)
Film Review
By the Geezer of Oz
“Twenty-five years after members of a religious cult committed mass suicide, the lone survivor returns to the scene of the tragedy with a documentary crew in tow.” (IMDb)
Veteran director Phil Joanou (State of Grace, Final Analysis, Heaven’s Prisoners, Entropy, Gridiron Gang) already possesses somewhat of an odd filmography with a whole lot of music videos/documentaries, a little TV work and a feature film made every few years, The Veil does not make the list any less strange.
While I could see an effort was made here to bring us an interesting, well put together horror film, this attempt did not make the mark. The film does hold the viewer from start to finish, with as few yawns as possible and some fairly ineffective scares, but it’s the story that keeps things at least minimally interesting. Considering the cast of this project, one would expect a much superior result.
Jessica Alba (The Killer Inside Me, Awake, The Eye, the Sin City and Machete films) helms in the main role, Lily Rabe (American Horror Story) and Thomas Jane (Deep Blue Sea, The Punisher, The Mist, Before I Wake) round out the main roles. The supporting cast also includes some familiar faces in Aleksa Palladino (TV’s Boardwalk Empire, Rogue and Halt and Catch Fire), Shannon Woodward (TV’s Raising Hope and Westoworld), Reid Scott (Tv’s Veep), Meegan Warner(Scare Campaign, The Caretaker, TV’s Turn: Washington’s Spies) and David Sullivan (Primer).
While not completely worthless, this supernatural horror-thriller is not one I would go out of my way to recommend. It might, however, be OK for those late nights without many options.
At your own risk. 5/10.
