The Lair (2022 film)

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The Lair
The Lair (2022 film).jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Neil Marshall
Written byNeil Marshall
Charlotte Kirk
Produced byDaniel Conrad-Cooper
Kwesi Dickson
Jonathan Halperyn
StarringCharlotte Kirk
Jamie Bamber
Jonathan Howard
Hadi Khanjanpour
CinematographyLuke Bryant
Edited byNeil Marshall
Music by Christopher Drake
Release date
  • 25 August 2022 (2022-08-25)(UK)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Lair is a 2022 British action horror film directed by Neil Marshall and co-written with Charlotte Kirk. [1] [2]

Contents

The story follows Captain Kate Sinclair, a Royal Air Force pilot, who is shot down over Afghanistan. After crashing in a hostile region controlled by insurgents, Kate is pursued by armed militants. Desperate to escape, she stumbles upon an abandoned Soviet bunker.

Inside the bunker, Kate discovers horrifying genetic experiments left over from the Cold War era. The bunker is filled with grotesque creatures, human-animal hybrids that were created as biological weapons but have gone feral. These mutants, called "ravagers," are fast, powerful, and almost indestructible.

Kate manages to escape the bunker, but the ravagers are unleashed into the open. She is rescued by a group of U.S. soldiers stationed at a nearby outpost. Together, they must defend themselves against the ravagers while battling the insurgents outside.

The movie builds tension as the soldiers, led by Kate and their commanding officer, struggle to survive both the ravagers and the mounting insurgent attacks. The creatures seem unstoppable, and the team is forced to make difficult decisions as their numbers dwindle.

In a climactic final battle, the survivors devise a plan to destroy the bunker and seal the creatures inside forever. Kate leads the charge, and they manage to set off a massive explosion, collapsing the bunker and trapping the ravagers underground. Kate and a few others escape, but the movie ends on an ambiguous note, suggesting that the threat may not be entirely over.

The film blends high-intensity action with horror elements, focusing on survival and the horrors of war, both human and unnatural.

Cast

Reception

The Lair received mixed reviews from critics. As of August 2024, the film holds a 35% approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 20 reviews. [3]

Variety wrote "There’s nary a dull moment, albeit no truly memorable ones either. It’s a movie more hectic than exciting, let alone scary. But it does move along at a brisk clip that attests to the director’s knack for staging and pacing splattery action." [1] Noel Murray of the Los Angeles Times wrote "The Lair doesn’t finish as spectacularly as it starts, but that just means it’s a good genre picture and not a great one." [4] Simon Abrams of RogerEbert.com awarded the film two-and-a-half stars out of four, calling it "a good-enough horror/action hybrid", praising the action scenes and practical effects of the monsters but had a more mixed opinion on the acting and dialogue. [5]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 Harvey, Dennis (24 October 2022). "'The Lair' Review: There's More Guts Than Glory in This Military Monster Mash". Variety .
  2. "The Lair". The New York Times . 27 October 2022.
  3. "The Lair | Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  4. "The Lair - Los Angeles Times". Los Angeles Times . 28 October 2022. Retrieved 5 September 2023.
  5. Abrams, Simon (28 October 2022). "The Lair movie review & film summary (2022)". RogerEbert.com . Retrieved 28 August 2024.