There’s a subgenre called Survivalist that often crosses paths with Horror. The best examples are Alive (in which a group of South American soccer players crash in the Andes and are eventually reduced to cannibalism) and 127 Hours (where a trapped hiker is pushed to unthinkable extremes to beat death). Ravenous can also be considered Survivalist (based very loosely on the story of the Donner Party). This is the type of the film The Grey aspires to be (although with no basis in actual events). A common conclusion to a Survivalist saga reveals otherwise unknown powers of the human Spirit (even if the hero succumbs to an honorable death, as in Sean Penn’s Into The Wild), but The Grey offers no such fulfillment. While there is nothing inherently wrong with a nihilistic film, The Grey also fails to deliver the thrills and chills it has been promising for months on major Horror websites like Bloody Disgusting and Dread Central.
Written and directed by Joe Carnahan, produced by Open Road, and starring Liam Neeson, Dallas Roberts, James Badge Dale, Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo, and Joe Anderson, The Grey opened nationwide on Friday. The following review WILL CONTAIN NUMEROUS SPOILERS, which I usually try to go easy on. But this review is not an endorsement of The Grey. Rather, it’s a warning for those who might plop down $15 actually expecting to see a movie with balls. Consider yourselves warned.
Read my review after the jump…
The Grey kicks off with Liam Neeson’s character, John Otway, penning a woeful letter to an ex-wife who left him because he’s no good. (It is so implied by the fact that John laments that he belongs working a thankless job in the Alaskan wilderness, surrounded by ex-cons and “assholes”. What is his thankless job? He works at an oil refinery—shooting wolves that seem to pose a constant threat to the workers. Uh huh). I should’ve probably guessed straight away that I had been tricked into watching a pussy flick instead of a tale of hardcore survival. But it was easy to cut Neeson some slack, as one can imagine he was channeling real life sorrow from the freak death of his wife, Natasha Richardson on a ski resort in Quebec in 2009.
The only really hardcore part of the film is the airplane crash and the immediate aftermath, but it doesn’t top what we’ve already seen in Alive, Fearless, or even Final Destination. There are lots of bodies, but not much gore, and while many appear to have burned, not one oozes or smolders.
To be fair, The Grey had more up its sleeve than survival against hunger and the elements from the get go. I’m talking, of course, about the wolves that relentlessly peruse the small band of survivors. I’m no expert, but anyone who watches the Discovery Chanel will know in an instant that these wolves do not act like the ones in nature. No wolf, even one of exceptional size, bravery, and stamina, would ever attack a group of men sitting around the camp fire. Everyone knows that a wolf will only attack you if you’re after its pups, or if it’s starving. The wolves in The Grey have dozens of dead bodies to gnaw on in the wreckage, so who attack the living? In many ways, these are the same complaints shark lovers levy against films like Jaws. The only way to get past this incongruity is to accept that what you are watching is a work of fiction. Once that becomes painfully obvious, however, an audience member can start to lose empathy with the characters in a hurry.
Still, I was excited to see the wolves, as I had read they were filmed with real animals and puppets, with CGI only used to smooth the components together. Unfortunately, the alpha wolf was so obviously a puppet, it took me completely out of the film. Seriously, it looked like a character from Fraggle Rock.
I thought it was ridiculous the way John Diaz (played by Frank Grillo), decided in the film’s penultimate act to give up and die. Not because I can’t imagine someone being pushed to that level of exhaustion and deterioration, but because John Diaz still had plenty of kick left in him. Seriously, why would a guy who survived a plane crash and days of constant wolf attacks decide to suddenly call it quits? Because he twisted his ankle? Please! We’ve seen ordinary people pushed to cannibalism in Alive and a man who amputates his own arm in 127 Hours, but a tough guy like Diaz decides, “Welp, my life back home sucks and this sure is a pretty place to die”. What a pussy!
I recently found myself defending the ending of The Devil Inside which many viewers thought was abrupt and unsatisfying. While it was abrupt, I thought the ending was appropriate since we’d already seen the juiciest parts of the film, and it leaves the story opened to multiple interpretations (not to mention sequels). Similarly, I think a lot of people will be pissed off by the way The Grey ends, except this time I couldn’t agree more. Whereas The Devil Inside ends after the ultimate moment of terror/excitement, The Grey ends just when it’s getting good. What should have been a payoff for sitting through a boring ass two-hour film was instead a slap in the face. It was like being brought right to the edge of an orgasm, and then getting kicked the fuck out of bed.
In the end, we learn that John Ottway’s wife didn’t leave him for another man, or to escape his abusive nature—she actually died of cancer. As this fact is revealed, Ottway discovers that after days of trekking towards an imagined rescue, he has instead walked right into the alpha wolf’s den. Death is imminent. All that effort—for nothing. But Ottway realizes that the upside of being eaten by a wolf is he’ll soon be reunited with dead-wifey. Well, jolly good for you! Have fun dying.
UPDATE: While reading other reviews of The Grey this morning, I was livid to discover reports of what we film geeks call a “stinger”: A final scene after the final credits. While I am normally inclined to sit through film credits on the off chance of catching a stinger, I was so bored with The Grey and disappointed with the ending I practically jumped out of my seat when the credits started rolling. Had I missed the scene I’d most wanted to see—the actual fight between Liam Neeson and the alpha wolf? Thankfully, no. The scene shows Neeson lying beside the dead alpha wolf, the presumed victor of a bloody confrontation. But there is no additional action and nothing to make us think Neeson won’t soon be dead himself. Whoopee.
1.5 out of 5 Skulls
Saucy Josh writes a blog for intelligent Horror Movie aficionados called Blood and Guts for Grown Ups: https://bloodandgutsforgrownups.wordpress.com/