Voice of Reason is one of those films that I would of probably turned down reviewing had it not been for the trailer. However while the film has it high points I found that film has a high amount of amateur mistakes. Not so much in the style of filmmaking but more along the lines of the script.
Voice of Reason is about a girl named Tracy whom after a hiking trip with two friends finds herself in a hospital with some memory loss. When she awakens she is greeted by a computer eye, (ala: Hal from 2001: Space Odyssey.) This computer begins to tell her what has happened to her and why she is in the hospital. Turns out she was in some kind of coma for three months. The computer then begins to ask her a series of odd questions, before asking her to tell it the last memories she had before she slipped into the coma. She begins by telling the computer the story of her trip with her friends and how they came across an old group of building’s in the middle of nowhere. The three decide to explore the buildings tunnel system, and that’s where the horrors of the film begin.
Here’s the deal, There are two parts to this film, the so called “Story” that Tracy is telling the computer, and the scene with Tracy interacting with the computer. The scene which take place in the hospital between the computer and Tracy are written decent. My problem lies within the flat dialogue that was written for the actors in the story scene. It was obvious that the actors were going by what was written for them, and not applying real feeling to it. I feel that this may be a result of poor screen writing on the writers part as the actors lines in the scenes sound like passages in a book. In other words the way they were talking was not the way human dialogue is supposed to be portrayed. When I took a screenwriting course in college my professor told the class the first day; “Forget about what you learned in English class during grade school, your going to learn how to write the way people talk. In the case of this script they didn’t write the dialogue the way people would normally talk. Not only does this affect the script, but it affects the realism in which the film is trying to portray to it’s audience. And that’s what happen, I felt no need to be part of the story anymore, because the lack of realism took me out of the element.
The acting in this film is a toss up. On one hand we have a really good performance by Kortney Adams who does a good job for a first time actor. But then we have the rest of the cast whom for the most part just seemed to be the filmmakers friends, and their acting in the film seemed just as one dimensional as their characters were. The guy who did the voice of the computer was not half bad, but it was just his voice, which for the most part whoever he is, he’s got a great dry sinister voice and was a great pick to do the voiceover for the role.
Don’t expect much in terms of great special effects. There is not much in terms of special make-up effects, just some blood here and there and some zombie like make-up effects which weren’t all that great. There is also some CGI, the obvious is the very beginning car scene which looks really fake, and the computer Hal like eye on the wall.
Overall, the film has it’s ups, and is very well shot and edited. I give the filmmakers credit for their style and proper use of shots and great editing. But as far as story goes I just felt that the characters we’re flat and the script lacked in certain areas and turned me off during parts of the plot that should of kept me more interested in the film. The film however does have a great plot twist towards the end of the film which results in a surprise ending, but it’s an ending we’ve all seen before. So it’s kind of a toss up, I for one had my issues with the film, but it’s not so bad that others might see past it’s flaws and enjoy it. It’s better than most of the crap we get sent here at The Horror Review, but like I said the film does have it’s flaws.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
