THE LAIR (REVIEW)

Dir. Neil Marshall

Reviewer. Martyn Wakefield

Budget should never be a constraint for good story telling but it's evident that what was on paper and in Neil Marshall's head was miles away from the laughably bad acting that is so distracting that even the best creature and special effects can't quite save this mess of a movie.

When Royal Air Force pilot Lt. Kate Sinclair is shot down over Afghanistan, she finds refuge in an abandoned underground bunker where deadly man-made biological weapons - half human, half alien - are awakened.

The good is that there are some of the best death scenes of the genre this year, the bad is that the ragtag band of squaddies seem more of a joking stereotype of their respective homeland than anything of a serious fighter team. What's more frustrating is that this is Marshall's bread and butter. Budget aside, the likes of DOG SOLDIERS, THE DESCENT and DOOMSDAY prove he can handle a survival group against the unnatural and it's hard to associate anything here with the director.

Charlotte Kirk is probably the only saving grace but against the comedic stereotypes, she feels so abstract. It's as if all of the dodgy FMV cut scenes from a PSOne game have been compiled to fill in between the on rails action. In fact if it was interactive, it could save it.

At times brutal and tense, with action scenes fast and frantic (exactly how you'd expect from the director of some of GAME OF THRONES most violent episodes), others like an episode of Doctor Who, especially where the light is at play. For hardcore horror fans there's some enjoyable B-Movie level of enjoyment to be had here bit those more unforgiving won't find much to love.