Dan (John Lynch), the owner of a run-down little farm somewhere at the ass-end of Ireland, has leased parts of his livestock to a scientist (Marcel Iures) for quite illegal genetic growth experiments.
Something like this is never a good idea, and when one of the experimental cows gives birth to a very, very hungry calf, things start to go very, very wrong. Dan, the scientist and two young people (Sean Harris & Ruth Negga) who had the misfortune of passing through, have to cope with a few problems, like flesheating cow embryos and a rather nasty kind of infection that does make it imprudent to leave the farm too soon.
Isolation is a much better film than its plot would let you think. What sounds like a very bad Troma comedy (and really, are there even watchable Troma comedies?), plays out as a dense and claustrophobic thriller with some nice and effective nods in the direction of body horror and the first Alien movie, all achieved without looking too derivative.
The trick here lies in the excellent execution. Director Billy O'Brien shot the film in the naturalistic, matter-of-fact style one knows from worthy UK social dramas like the films of Ken Loach, leaving everything as low-key as possible and mostly replacing the expected fountains of gore with the insinuation of gore and other oh-so-disgusting things of the sort that are always much harder to cope with when one is just imagining them. That tactic works out nicely. I for one couldn't escape a very unpleasant feeling of claustrophobia - and that's no small feat, seeing how seldom films get to me this way.
I'd be interested to hear what someone who is more of a country person has to say about the film, because I can't shake the feeling that a part of the movie's effect on me had to do with its grimy country setting (leading to thoughts like "Ew, why is she sticking her arm into that cow ass? Is that normal?" or "Look at all that mud!") which would have been unpleasant enough without any monsters.
This is highly recommended to people who have the stomach for it.
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