Bane Movie Review, Film Still and Poster

UK 2008
Director: James Eaves
Cast: Sophia Dawnay, Lisa Devlin, Tina Barnes, Sylvia Robson, Daniel Jordan, Jonathan Sidgwick
Rating:
Release Date: 2008
Running Time: 1 hour 52 minutes 54 secs

Review of the Movie

Bane film still 1


BANE
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Horror. One word that in the Movie world could be interpreted more than just Fear. It could be portrayed as a combination of terror, anger, gore and what fans of the genre used to hope for, nudity. But there are also some movies that dedicate themselves to the true meaning of horror... Fear. Those films are the ones that build the entire storyline by presenting the audience the core of Horror, tension. Bane is a movie that does very well in that department.

Produced, directed and written by James Eaves, Bane is another horror flick from United Kingdom. A horror with no comedy, nudity, and other cheap shocks. But ample with tension, mystery and gore guarantee to disturb you. It plays very well between the border of psychological thriller, slasher, and sci-fi thriller.

The story is simple really, it revolves solely around 4 women, Katherine (Sophia Dawnay), Jane (Lisa Devlin), Elaine (Sylvia Robson) and Natasha (Tina Barnes). At the beginning of the Bane, we could see they're injected with a special serum by a group of scientists. Upon waking up they find themselves isolated in a chamber but without any memory whatsoever about who they really are, especially what are they doing there. Like the suffering from amnesia is not enough for these poor confused young women, one by one is taken to a special room to be interrogated and is further subjected to a bizarre series of tests. And when they get to sleep, they're not actually taking a rest, for a frightening man in white robe with sharp machete is after them. What are they really doing there? And who are they really? What was the test is all about?

One thing that I always take my hats off to is if filmmakers manage to make something big out of something so simple. Bane does that very well. But, before we get to the good part, I might better lay down the downside first. See how long Bane is? It's almost 2 hours! For a horror movie, that is quite long and for some moviegoers it's very draining, if you don't like the theme. And the set or the place is pretty much looked low-budget-like. The chambers is creepy but unbelievably dull, 99% all we see for two hours is that boring white test facility. And talking about gore, well though indeed violence is a regular to horror movie, but in Bane, the gore are actually not very necessary. It almost feels as if the filmmakers were not confident with the mystery and tension in Bane. The violence could've been just made off-screen, and that would be enough to tell us what's going on without resorting to expressed misogyny acts.

And now the good part is, that this movie keeps the tension very well with only minimum element in the film, there is something menacing about this horror film, a combination of surreal and real horror, the terror feels real. And the performances of the cast are excellent. From Sophia Dawney, Tina Barnes and Daniel Jordan (played Dr. Murdoch), and all the supporting cast, those actors deliver great performance of fear. And the revenge scenes of our protagonists are excellent also. Sure, there are some plot holes, but almost all the scenes and dialogue are logically accepted once we know the answer behind all the mystery. The ending is highly responsible for the explanations, and thankfully it makes sense (in a horror kind of way of course). Why Katherine is different, and why....well too much of this will become a spoiler so I better stop. Anyway, I was so caught up with the story and just hoped that the filmmakers would not run away and give the audience an irresponsible ending in the name of Open-interpretation. Again, the ending worth the 2 hours viewing.

Nevertheless, it is must be known that Bane may not cater for the general horror taste of most moviegoers. It's highly likely low-budget, it's not the slasher type that is so popular among horror moviegoers, and it's not the creepy Japanese/Korean horror, and it doesn't contain any nudity. But Bane is good in the tension department, so if you want to taste 2 hours of tension, Bane is a good pick.