I am a pretty big fan of films that can blend horror and sci-fi. As much as I love horror movies, I don’t really read a lot of horror books. I do read a ton though. And about 95% of what I read is sci-fi. For some reason I feel that almost all horror can be fun/entertaining/effective in a visual medium like film, but sci-fi films are way less likely to be memorable. That’s not to say there aren’t A+ sci-fi movies out there. There are a lot! But making a good, immersive sci-fi movie on a small budget is difficult. That is not the case with horror. So, I imagine that genre filmmakers are much more likely to make a horror film. You’re probably wondering where I’m going with all this. Well, honestly, I don’t know. I went off on a bit of a tangent there. I guess I’m just trying to say that I really like it when I come across a sci-fi horror movie that doesn’t disappoint. Now I imagine that you’re wondering if Vesper falls into that category. Well, read on! Let’s get into it, shall we?
Vesper is a resourceful 14-year-old girl in a post-apocalyptic world nearly devoid of edible plants and animals. She is also very smart and interested in bio-engineering. She hopes to “unlock” the seeds that she and her fellow ‘have-nots’ get from the ‘haves’ in the citadels – enclaves of well-off people. She and people in her caste must scrape by however they can to survive, trading goods (like blood) and services for seeds that will only propagate once. Her father is bedridden after an accident working for the prevailing corporation. His worker’s comp seems to have ended with a home ventilator and an old drone that he can pilot with his mind and speak through. Her uncle, Jonas, is something of a cult leader with a small army of devout kids whose blood he harvests to trade with the citadel. He rules over a small enclave of survivors and a few artificial people called “jugs”. One day a citadel vehicle crashes in their muddy neck of the woods stranding a young woman and an older man. Vesper finds and helps the woman but her uncle gets to the man first. The woman promises to help Vesper and her father in exchange for her own safety and return. Jonas suspects that Vesper is hiding the woman and wants to take her for himself – by force. Vesper must race against time and her uncle to survive.
The world building in Vesper is top-notch. Often films expect viewers to become immersed in a future or alternate universe with a relatively thin veneer of the unusual over familiar present day settings. Vesper brings us into a fully realized future world of mud and desperation with very odd technologies. At some point in this world’s history, technology development veered hard into bio-tech, which ended up being the prevailing tech of the people. The generators are powered by bacteria, the ventilator has a fleshy lung constantly inflating and deflating, and dad’s drone has a sinewy tissue network inside. It’s probably cliche to compare the tech design to Cronenberg’s creations, but in this case it is apt. The performances are all pitch perfect as well. Raffiella Chapman and Rosy McEwan are both excellent as the female leads. Richard Brake – a superb character actor and genre regular – shines both in his voice work through the drone and in his silent expressions as the bedridden father. Eddie Marsan is particularly impressive as the self-serving despot. He rules over his little plot of mud with intimidation and a host of young boys who would kill for him. And his plan to grow his fiefdom by forcing women to be “breeders” makes one’s skin crawl. He’s just pitch black evil and a great antagonist to root against. So far, it might sound like I’m omitting the ‘horror’ from this review of a sci-fi horror movie. Rest assured, there is plenty of violence, tension, and fear that will more than satisfy us horror fans.
The Final Cut: Vesper is a unique and engrossing vision of desperate people surviving in a dystopian future. Its goopy bio-based tech and the actions of a violent cult leader push it well into the horror end of the spectrum.
No Real Danger 