Sometimes all you require is to watch a good old-fashioned monster movie and with a new film from director Neil Marshall, The Lair, you get exactly what you expect.
Royal Air Force pilot Lieutenant Kate Sinclair (Charlotte Kirk) is shot down in Afghanistan and while her co-pilot is killed by Afghan soldiers, she manages to escape and seek refuge in an old bunker. What she finds deep underground is a disturbing lab full of strange creatures kept in stasis.
After managing to escape she is taken by a group of US/UK soldiers to the base where she tries to explain what she discovered. None believe her but that night the camp is attacked by the creatures who have escaped and have to battle and fight to survive.
The film shows nothing new but it is a fun and gory ride with every cliche thrown at the audience. You can see the influence of his older classic films such as Dog Soldiers and The Descent as well as a big John Carpenter influence from The Thing and the music score.
While the film is nowhere near as good as his two older classics there is still a lot to enjoy, from the gory monster creature deaths to the witty dialogue, even if some of the acting is poor the short run time makes it definitely worth a watch.
The setting is interesting, the bunker was set up by the Russians and abandoned after they pulled out of Afghanistan and the story that the creatures were from a crashed spacecraft is not really explored much which is a shame.
Some good practical special effects, the monsters while basic do look menacing and although there are too many characters for us to get to know much about most of them, they almost all make an impression.
Yes, it’s all very familiar and a bit silly but for a beer and pizza Saturday night horror film it does the job nicely.
FILM – 7.5 PICTURE – 8 – AUDIO – 8 – EXTRAS -3
