Isolation
Old McDonald had a mutant cow!
Director: Billy O’Brien
Released: 2005
Starring: John Lynch, Essie Davis, Sean Harris, Marcel Iureș, Ruth Negga, Stanley Townsend
Logs: 6.5k
Plot: Farmer Dan (Lynch) is struggling to keep his farm afloat to the point that he is allowing a bio-genetics company to experiment on his remaining cows with disastrous results when they unexpectedly create a monstrous side effect.
A rural horror from Film Four which seemingly has slipped under the radar since its release which is surprising considering how much it manages to do with so little. For based on an isolated dairy farm in Ireland run solely by John Lynch’s cattle farmer who has little to no contact with the world outside of his farm and now facing rising debts has allowed his few remaining cows to become the test subjects for bio-genetic testing for an unnamed company who believe that they can increase the growth rate of cattle.
The expectedly disastrous results of the genetic testing are teased out as O’Brien slowly builds the tension as the hints that something is going severely wrong being teased out before the farm descends into chaos and also when he introduces a new element to the plot as certain characters make the priority locking down the farm at all costs than dealing with the imminent threat that the experiments have no unleashed which in this case is spiky monsters which like the chestbuster in Alien turn into something much nastier though disappointing we never get a good look at exactly what that thing is be it a budget limitation or style choice the shots we do get of it appearing out of the dark make it resemble a sampling meat pile.
The creepiness factor is also only added to further by the farm’s isolated location is only added to by how rundown everything is as everything appears to be covered in mud or flooded with the griminess further being highlighted by the cinematography of Robbie Ryan who has since gone on to work on Oscar nominations for The Favourite and Poor Things with the film largely shot at night which only makes things creepier especially when the film is also so well lit that you’re never struggling to spot things in the dark. The uniqueness of the location also provides a real sense of originality to the film much like with The Thing only trading out the snow and ice for mud and rain its not a location I can say I’ve seen used before while watching John Lynch wading through a slurry pit (a pit of cow poo and water) might be one of the most uncomfortable scenes I’ve seen in awhile.
A unique horror film which really pulls out some surprising twists as it rewards the audiences patience as the slow burn opening certainly pays off once things start to go south.