There have been plenty of reviews on this lesser-known horror movie but one more couldn’t hurt since quite a few of them have been short and to to the point without really digging into the whole idea of what lies beyond the movie and whether or not it’s really that interesting, to begin with. To be entirely honest, the movie is something that does carry a certain level of interest since the level of connectivity between the characters is hard to miss as things move along. There are the usual horror tropes that one might expect though since the spore, which is the main antagonist in this movie, is something that was buried within the ice long ago and is actually an ancient entity that is far more destructive than anything that humanity has ever known, and was released by global warming. The mere fact that global warming is the reason why a small town is quickly overrun by the spore and its spawn is kind of amusing since the audience doesn’t really get to see the resulting creatures that are birthed from the spores all that much, but the tension is created by the scenery, the actions of the individuals, and of course the fact radio broadcasts that can be heard throughout the movie.
Beginning the movie by showing a person in a hazmat suit walking through the forest collecting samples is a big part of what might have drawn people in. At this point, it’s established that the spores have already spread and have become a noticeable problem, especially since the person in the suit finds another individual out in the woods that have been affected by the spores. When that individual sprays the person in the suit with a copious amount of gooey material the suit-wearer understandably goes running, perhaps seeking to gain distance from the other individual, who slowly but surely crawls out of the tent, or perhaps just to get back to a vehicle or a base of operations.
But while rolling your eyes at the person in the suit’s inexperience when it comes to dealing with supposedly dead bodies might be natural, the next person that we see, makes some of the dumbest mistakes by first wandering into the woods, then not paying attention and cutting himself, which leave an open wound for spores, which can drift on the winds, to find and enter. I could list every single mistake that the people in this movie make when it comes to the overall story, but in a way, it feels as though every moment that might make a person cringe and utter the phrase “Don’t do that!” would become redundant rather quickly. The point of this story, that a killer spore has mutated and become something that kills incredibly quickly and turns those that are affected violent when it comes to interacting with those that aren’t infected, is made primarily over the radio broadcasts that are prevalent in the movie. Anything and everything else requires the attention of the viewer to figure out since otherwise, it does become a little bit confusing, especially when one woman, who accepts a ride from an infected individual, somehow without seeing that he’s infected, runs for her life after he attacks her.
She then comes upon a small cabin where a person seated in a wheelchair has been burned alive, while the person she finds in the cabin asks the woman to kill her as a rather toothy creature appears to be stuck in or to her body. Unable to bring herself to kill anyone, the woman rests a shotgun against the dying person’s hands but is sprayed with blood and other material before she can reach a safe distance. The speed of the spores and how they affect an individual have already been seen by this time, but it’s fair to say that the woman had no idea as she might not have heard any of the broadcasts, as during a search of a nearby van for anything that might be of use, she collapses and the story moves on. By the time we come to the woman who is holed up in her garage and is confronted by another man who tells her a story of how he and his wife came out to find people they care about, the general feeling is that, well, people have either been seriously ignorant about this matter, or they’ve been woefully unprepared, or both.
The Spore is one of those movies you might feel comfortable with if it turned out to be a spoof or just a comedic horror movie since some of the decisions that are made during the course of the movie are so insanely dumb that the average horror fan might be wondering what the director was thinking. As a means of putting something out there for people to watch, this movie feels as though it presented a serious threat without any needed exposition or action, but a fair amount of horror. It wasn’t that horrible, but it could have used a little something more to make it more convincing.
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