CALL OF THE VOID (2025)

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Directed/Written by James B. Cox.
Check out the trailer here!!

After the death of her brother, Moray (played by I, TONYA’s Caitlin Carver) goes to a secluded cabin in the woods for some peace and quiet. But her solitude is interrupted when a group of kids in a rock band show up next door. Turns out the cabin is owned by a college professor, who teaches one of the members of the band and has been investigating some kind of strange phenomenon in the woods. When Moray agrees to go on a hike in the woods, she realizes that this hiking trip is not normal and the band’s intentions are not on the up and up.

Vague synopsis? Yep, but CALL OF THE VOID is a vague movie. Very vague. So vague that I don’t exactly know what it is that I can categorize as the monster in this movie. The film offers up a bunch of details and a few visual clues involving images of something in space, but for the most part, this film leaves it up to you to come up with what it is that is disrupting Moray’s solitude. The film opens in a way reminiscent of 1978’s INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS and after the hike into the woods, everyone is walking around in a body-snatcher like trance state. But we are never really given anything like alien spores or pods or really anything other than what might be contaminated water and what might be some kind of wilderness vortex. But if you’re the type that likes to know what the monster is and despises ambiguous films, CALL OF THE VOID is not going to be for you.


Personally, I didn’t mind the unanswered questions because the film does a good job of amping up the paranoia and giving off a sense of unease. Because we basically know just as much as Moray knows, we are just like her, a minor character in a major story of what might be the beginning of world domination. I kind of liked this film as a sort of small story line that feels like some kind of tertiary chapter in a much bigger tale. Because the film does so well at communicating all of those off-kilter feelings, I didn’t mind that I had all kinds of questions by the end. Writer/director James B. Cox and star Caitlin Carver convey the feelings of being left out of the team meeting extremely well. It’s not a fun place to be in and it doesn’t make for one of the more comfortable watches, but because I understand that some of the best horror leaves things vague and comes from that feeling of staring into the deep, unfathomable abyss, I’m comfortable with the uncomfortability conveyed in CALL OF THE VOID.

But I know there will be many who won’t be cool with CALL OF THE VOID. With it’s attention to long silences and an ambient mood, this films feels like a more cinematic version of the new analog horror films that seem to be all the rage. I understand why folks won’t like it. I could have used a little bit more of an explanation. It would have elevated this film from an artsy film that relies on communicating a feeling to an actual story with a bit more rhyme or reason to it. Still, the horrors of the unknown is strong with CALL OF THE VOID and it was enough to entertain me…even if I was left scratching my head by the end. CALL OF THE VOID is worth taking a chance on if you prefer feeling a movie rather than understanding it. If you understand the difference, then this one might be for you.