‘The Corridor’ DVD Review
Stars: Stephen Chambers, James Gilbert, David Patrick Flemming, Matthew Amyotte, Glen Matthews, Nigel Bennett | Written by Josh MacDonald | Directed by Evan Kelly
Popping The Corridor into my DVD player I was first reminded of Lawrence Kasdan’s film adaptation of Stephen King’s Dreamcatcher – after all the plots are eerily similar: A group of friends head off to a snow-covered cabin in the woods and stumble across… something. In the case of Dreamcatcher it was aliens, in the case of The Corridor it’s something altogether more metaphysical.
Following his mother’s death, Tyler suffers a nervous breakdown, which results in him severing ties with his childhood friends. Years later, the group of friends decide to reunite for a weekend at his late mother’s country house in an attempt to rebuild friendships. Isolated deep in the snow covered forest, they stumble upon a mysterious supernatural hallway (the titular corridor) in the middle of the woods, which seems to give them a sense of euphoria. However it soon becomes clear that the energy force within the corridor is transforming them into something much darker, as one by one they turn on each other as madness takes a hold of their psyches.
The horror genre is a mixed bag and from one film to the next you never really know what you’re going to get. As I said in the intro, I expected The Corridor to be akin to a “monster in the woods” slasher movie. However the film turned out to be something completely different and something remarkably refreshing.
On the surface The Corridor is seemingly about a group of friends who come across a supernatural force in the forest and go mad. However dig a little deeper, perhaps interpret the film a little differently, and the movie is actually about one man’s battle with his own inner demons.Doing what all good genre films do, using a mix of sci-fi and horror tropes, The Corridor is an intriguing look at mental instability – each friend representing a piece of Tyler’s damaged psyche, which in the end must battle it out for his sanity – in the goriest way possible!
If you’re looking for a film that will challenge your preconceptions and actually leave you questioning what you have seen, then this is definitely one for you.
The Corridor is released on DVD and Blu-ray on February 25th, courtesy of Signature Entertainment.
