Now available on DVD
Cast:
Alexandra Staden as Connie
Adam Rayner as Taylor
Antonia Campbell-Hughes as Angle
Ashley Mulheron as Shoe
Amara Karan as Toni
Tom Payne as Stanton
Texas Battle as Dixon
Marc Pickering as Randall
Directed by Alex Orwell
Review:
As far as the whole cottage industry of reality show-themed horror films go, The Task is one of the better ones.
As usual, it has the typical stereotypes found in most reality shows today â the loud-mouthed jock, the dumb blonde, the arrogant, egotistical host, the brainy chick and the punk rock all star (that is sometimes British and this case is).
As usual, the setting is somewhere scary â not a haunted forest or an evil house â but an abandoned prison where some dastardly deeds took place some 75-plus years ago. Granted, not the most inventive setting given it has been done 987 times in other films but at least the back story of the establishment is somewhat interesting. The prison was run by an iron fisted warden that didn’t really like the inmates he was charged with watching over. So, instead of finding a new job that might bring him a bit more happiness, he decided to run around the prison at all hours naked, raping the female inmates and chopping up the men just for kicks. That is, until he was summarily dispatched by the local town once they discovered he was taking his job to a whole new level.
And as usual, the reality show isn’t all of what’s happening inside the prison. Instead of a serial killer running amok or one of the contestants going batshit crazy because they hate being in confined spaces, The Task is more supernatural with the ghost of the warden and all those he damned while being on the job not taking too kindly to having a bunch of cameras and people do stupid objectives in their place of unrest.
As usual, the contestants in the reality show are forced to do a bunch of tasks (hence the name) that involve them reading a spooky incantation or crawling into the hole where the prisoners were kept or getting strapped into the death chamber to feel what the prisoners felt.
These, as usual, are just to bide time between the contestants being picked off one by one by the supernatural elements until they (and the crew filming) realize something is not quite right and they better get the hell out of the prison.
As usual, this reality show horror has a lot that has been done before. Luckily, After Dark, as usual, does a great job with delivering a crisp and good looking film with top notch production values. The special effects are also well done with what we see at least. Some of the deaths aren’t that bloody or take place far away from the camera so there isn’t a lot of gore or brutality but what we get is good enough.
Compared to some of the other schlock that’s been put out by After Dark’s Originals imprint in the past 12 months this is one of the company’s better efforts and despite The Task‘s flaws it is worth checking out, especially if you’ve already watched everything else in your queue or local rental store.
