CELL COUNT (2012)

Streaming on the Roku Channel
Directed/Written by Todd E. Freeman

In the back of my mind, one of my greatest fears is getting cancer. Having lost multiple loved ones to the horrible disease, every time I have an ailment and ache or just a sniffle, there’s a part of me that shudders at the thought of my body being eaten away at from within by my own cells. It’s this type of body horror, a genre practically created by the early works of David Cronenberg, that drives the central terrifying theme of CELL COUNT. Writer/director Todd E. Freeman has concocted a horror film that will make you quiver on a cellular level, taking the desperation one feels when confronting an illness, teasing it with hope, then driving a hard steel-toed boot down on all expectation.

Todd and Sadie Carpenter (Robert McKeehen & Haley Talbot) are a loving couple battling a life-threatening illness. Though it’s not identified in the film, all indications point to the illness being cancer or AIDS. As Sadie withers away in a hospital bed, Todd is frustrated that all he can do is watch his wife die. When Dr. Brandt (Christopher Toyne) offers a miraculous cure that seems too good to be true, they jump at the chance but soon find themselves in the middle of an experiment that harkens a much worse fate.

Whisked to a facility not unlike a prison with sterilized walls and monochromatic colors, Todd and Sadie join a group of people who are all taking part in the experiment. Everything seems hunky-dory at first with Sadie having a miraculous and sudden recovery, but soon, symptoms of a different nature arise. Todd becomes sick. A dog explodes. Bizarre bruises appear on the participants’ legs, and something is moving inside of them. To top it all off, there are two prison inmates who have volunteered for the experiment in hopes of a reduced term who pose an even more immediate threat to our cast. Freeman has set up a dire situation in one area and takes full advantage of the claustrophobic feelings present in every frame with these captive people. The cast does a great job of showing both their desperation and ferocity once they realize they are mere experiments in a mad game.

Though one of the effects shots was a bit cartoony, for the most part, Freeman plays the effects close to his vest. Only when CGI is used does it get a bit hard to swallow, but the practical effects used in CALL COUNT are imaginative and gruesome. The scene involving an inmate whose vomited-up guts wrap themselves around his head is both reminiscent of ALIEN and completely original in itself. The fact that a tracheotomy is needed or the man will die adds even more ookiness to the mix. These scenes of complete amazement as the participants’ bodies betray them are the most effective of the film.

CELL COUNT skids a bit off the rails as it pulls the camera back and reveals a much larger story going on. Up until the participants leave the facility they are imprisoned in, this was a tight little horror film. I can appreciate the scope that Freeman suggests at the very end of the film, suggesting that the horrors for this group of survivors have just begun, but some of it feels tacked on and I think a much more overt ending would have been more effective.

That said, I quite loved CELL COUNT for its imaginative use of body horror and the claustrophobic feeling the cast and environment exuded. Freeman is a director to watch with an eye for unique horror that I have only seen come out of France in the last few years with MARTYRS, INSIDE, and FRONTIER[S]. CELL COUNT conveys intense emotion and even more impactful scenes of sheer terror. Given a bigger budget, I’d love to see the world this group of participants find themselves in at the end developed in a sequel. But as it is, CELL COUNT hits all the right notes, making it one of the better body horror films I’ve seen in years.