The Lair Review

The Lair review.

The Lair flirts with fun but mostly settles into a good SyFy original movie vibe. There’s nothing wrong with that…it’s a fine watch. You just can’t help but feel that a Neil Marshall movie should have something more too it. Or more of everything.

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The Lair

Directed by Neil Marshall

Written by Charlotte Kirk and Neil Mashall

Starring Charlotte Kirk, Jonathan Howard, Jamie Bamber and Leon Ockenden

The Lair Review

It’s not fair to compare every movie from a filmmaker to their best.  It creates an unrealistic expectation…especially in cases where that filmmaker has made truly great films.  It’s also unavoidable. A movie like Halloween is never far from thought when you watch John Carpenter’s follow up The Fog.  Neil Marshall movies fall into a similar trap.  He gave us two great horror movies in Dog Soldiers and The Descent.  Which is what will be on your mind as you watch his latest movie, The Lair.

A British air force pilot (Charlotte Kirk) is shot down over Afghanistan.  While trying to survive behind enemy lines…she discovers deadly creatures in an old underground bunker.  After falling in with a group of US soldiers…the creatures begin to mount an assault. 

Fair or not I couldn’t get Dog Soldiers and The Descent out of my mind.  The plot of The Lair has a lot in common with the former.  It could learn some lessons from the latter.  All three are about a group of people trying to survive/destroy a group of monsters/creatures.  Dog Soldiers adds comedy, great practical effects and memorable characters.  The Descent goes for a claustrophobic horror to great effect.  The Lair’s biggest problem is that it never chooses anything.

That’s not to say that The Lair is a bad movie.  It’s fine.  Every aspect of it qualifies as…fine.  There are moments that are funny.  Some of the action works.  The characters here are alright.  You won’t be thinking about anything you saw here after the credits roll…but it’s mostly enjoyable enough while you’re watching it.  Unfortunately, it’s enjoyable like a SyFy original movie…not those first two Neil Marshall movies.

To its credit, it opens with a bang.  A high energy introduction to the film sets expectations high.  Our pilot, Kate, finds herself shot down, in a gunfight and in a monster movie, all within 15 minutes.  She escapes the bunker, and the movie slows down considerably.  Some of the soldier’s witty banter from Dog Soldiers would have helped. 

The Lair follows up the lull with a clever decision.  We expect our heroes to find their way back into the bunker at some point.  Instead of waiting for that, Marshall unleashes the creatures on their camp unexpectedly.  Bullets rain as they find themselves in an immediate battle for survival.  Some of the atmosphere and horror of The Descent would have been preferable.  Especially when the survivors do make their way back into the bunker.

It’s understood that The Lair isn’t trying to be those other films.  But it’s hard to not recognize how aspects of them would have aided this movie in finding an identity.  Or, at least, something it excels at.  It does have some funny bits and moments of surprise.  But it’s not a funny movie.  The scenes are there to be exploited for horror.  But it’s not a scary movie either.  The path it chooses is an action movie that doesn’t have the budget to be an action movie.  That’s where the SyFy movie feeling comes from. 

The creatures too often look like rubber suited monsters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Doctor Who to provide any scares on appearance.  Marshall does know how to utilize them for a bit of fun, however.  The most memorable parts of The Lair involve battling the creatures at close range.  Which speaks to the decision to opt for shootouts instead of the close quarters combat that worked much better. 

The characters are largely interchangeable.  Like other aspects of the movie…they’re fine.  Kirk does a serviceable job in the lead.  She gets to flex some action muscles and play the “why won’t people listen to Ripley” role for a while.  Her journey is actually quite like Ripley’s…just on fast forward.  She survives an encounter and then deals with soldiers who don’t believe her…until they realize they should have been listening to her all along.  We’ve seen it done better before.  A recurring theme of The Lair.

The Lair can be summed up as Saturday afternoon horror.  Something to throw on during a lazy afternoon.  It’s not engaging enough to build a night around…but it’s entertaining enough if you turn your brain off and have nothing else to do.  The frustration lies in how easily it could have been more.  If it had made some decisions we know that Marshall is capable of delivering to a grand degree.  Thankfully…we can always just watch the movies where he made them.

Scare Value

The Lair is a decent creature feature. It’s a decent lot of things, in fact. Unfortunately, no aspect of the movie reaches another level for more than a moment before settling back into a modestly entertaining position. If it was funnier…if the action was better…if it was scary…if the effects were memorable…if it had chosen one of these things and committed everything to it. What we have is a movie that does everything alright…and never strives for more.

2.5/5

The Lair Links

Streaming on Shudder

Rent/Buy on VOD from Vudu

Rent/Buy on VOD from Amazon

Buy on Blu-Ray from Amazon

The Lair Trailer

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