Death Valley

Another instantly forgettable addition to the small horror/Sci-Fi niche of "send in the military cannon fodder" movies. What is that? You might be surprised just how many low-keyed movies there exist dealing with random military men (and women) being sent into a top-secret and geographically remote government research facility or underground lab to eliminate some sort of experiment that went horribly wrong. As a matter of course, these people haven't got a clue what they will be battling against and, regardless of their intense training and superior skills, they get mercilessly ripped to pieces by something (usually an alien or a genetic experiment) much stronger and slimier than them.

"Death Valley" is a new (2021) movie, but it doesn't bring any fresh or innovative elements to the already long overdue formula. Quite the contrary, the film features the same old clichés and dire stereotypes that were already introduced in the foundational landmarks of the genre; - like "Aliens", "Predator", and "Resident Evil". The noble soldier promising to his pregnant wife this will be his last mission, the jolly & joking brother-in-arms, the buffooned Russian mercenaries as opponents, the rescued scientist holding back a few dark secrets, etc. Etc. The plot twists, turns, and becomes unnecessarily complex towards the finale, but whatever. Nobody pays attention to the plot in films like these. I liked the monster, which looked to me like the illegitimate offspring between the Chattermouth cenobite from the original "Hellraiser" and the eyeless creature from "Pan's Labyrinth". Other than that, not much special.

The description of the film for the pitch meeting probably went something like this: a monster in an underground laboratory / bunker hunts and kills mercenaries.

We've seen this formula a million times before. There's nothing here that particularly stands out. Play this film in the background for an hour thirty minutes of generic fun while you do something else more productive.

Ok first of all I have to be crtical on the light and the dubbing sound. It was dark in many scenes causing eye ball strain of the third kind.

The voice dubbing was amateurish and sloppy in many key scenes.

The visual effects of the creatures was the 4 stars I gave the film. They were very immersed and well designed which gave the horror feel to the movie.

Plot was straight forward and just a rip off from many horror sci fi movies.

The acting was poor and the characters very dull that you couldn't care less if they died or not.

This film is one I would come home from the pub worst for wear to turn on to watch before passing out through alcohol poisoning..

The audio is terrible, as if whoever was in charge of sound design was their first time. Dialogue isn't great, action is okay, and the only redeemable quality is that the monster is cool. This movie is a dud. Try again next time, Psycho Goreman.

Two incompetent soldiers fight to rescue a scientist from some newly discovered creature that takes over your DNA - hmmm, where have I heard that before

The first 30 minutes are just fighing in a jungle (decent pyrotechnics btw) where the two soldiers don't bother shooting the enemy even when they find your compadre you "hid" 5 minutes earlier under some tree roots with a big opening so no one could see him

The creature (some guy in fairly good makeup) is on screen for maybe 10 minutes in total - most of the final hour is just running thru tunnels or crawling thru air ducts or fighting the bad guys

Passable but only just - you've seen it all before.