Review of Isolation (2005) by Jean-Francois V — 28 May 2008

I bought a very cheap copy of this movie, which I had never heard of, because it had won the Grand Prix at the French Gerardmer Film Festival, an award which had already directed me to two films I greatly enjoy, "Dark Water" and "Two Sisters.".

"Isolation" is not exactly in the same league, but it is quite a decent effort. The only problem is that it just does on a farm what "Alien" had already done on a starship and "The Thing" in the Antarctic, namely explore a very visceral kind of biological horror, mixing this generic theme with echoes of the recent mad cow disease scare, fears about GMOs and an idea from the physiology of David Gerrold's tribbles.

The visuals are very similar to "Alien"'s: it is surprising how much a farm at night looks like the interior of a starship, especially with all the machinery and the stuff dripping from the ceilings.

As a believer in animal rights, I was particularly pleased by one line of the script, when the protagonist tells the scientist: "They are not animals to you. They are just laboratory experiments." As someone who coined the verb "deanimalize", I loved the philosophy behind that statement. Indeed, the cows in the film almost seemed like characters to me, and I wish the director had explored this a little further.

As a (moderate) fan of the TV series "Ashes to Ashes", I was also pleased to meet again baddy Sean Harris in a more sympathetic role.

Be warned though: the movie contains strong language, one sexual scene and, of course, rather copious amounts of gore (I closed my eyes once or twice.).