The pandemic anthology Isolation, which features 11 directors, gives us a glimpse into the lives of multiple people across the world as the world around them skids to a halt and millions fall sick and die. In each segment, loosely connected, we see different examples of human suffering and just how bad things could be.
The film’s cinematography does a fantastic job of capturing the bleakness of the new world by using blues and grays as well as other muted tones and stark city backgrounds nearly void of all life.
The large cast that includes Larry Fessenden (The Last Winter, Habit, Depraved), Bobby Roe, (“The Houses October Built 1&2”), Andrew Kasch, (Tales Of Halloween), Zach Passero (Wicked Lake), and Christian Pasquariello (Alien Invasion: S.U.M. 1).
The directors include Alix Austin, Adam R. Brown, Lary Fessenden, Dennie Gordon, Andrew Kasch, Kyle I. Kelley, Alexander Neary, Christian Pasquariello, Zach Passero, Bobby Roe, and Keir Siewert.
Each segment gives us a take on the pandemic from different points of view, from locations across the world, from LA to London. The best story, in my opinion, features two resilient young children trying to survive after their mother passes away. What sets it apart is that it actually gives us characters to care about. The other stories sort of lack depth, we aren’t given any real reason to care for the characters as we only see them for a few moments.
The segments do all have one thing in common, they all feature shades of desperation, fear, and illness. Three things we have all become very familiar with over the past year.
We were one week into lockdown last year when I realized that there would be filmmakers that would try to capitalize on all of the fear and loss of the pandemic for profit. That’s exactly what we get with Isolation. To be honest, I think by now we are all over watching the world go to hell as we lose loved ones, jobs, and hope. If the film would have been different, if there was some other angle, a cure, mutants, something, it might be another story, but it played a little too safe and tried too hard to hit close to home. Capitalizing on a pandemic that actually killed millions of people, probably isn’t the best thing to do right now, or ever. But don’t get me wrong, it’s not a terrible movie, just insensitive.
Isolation made its American premiere on October 15th at Screamfest. It will be released on VOD platforms Friday, November 2, 2021.
