‘Down here no one can hear you scream’
The Tank is a 2023 New Zealand monster movie about an ancient, long-dormant creature that terrorises a young family.
Written, produced and directed by Scott Walker (The Frozen Ground; short: Ordan’s Forest).
The Ajax Pictures-General Film Corporation-Happy Dog Entertainment-Ingenious Media co-production stars Luciane Buchanan, Matthew Whelan, Zara Nausbaum, Regina Hegemann, Jack Barry and Holly Shervey. The practical creature effects were provided by Weta Workshop.
Plot synopsis:
Oregon, 1978. Ben Adams and his wife Jules are in for a surprise when they inherit an abandoned coastal property that Ben’s recently deceased mother never mentioned. Untouched for forty years the house looms like an eerie relic over land which includes a stunning private cove and beach.
The beauty and tranquillity of the place leave the family with the nagging question: why was this property kept a secret for so long? While Jules rummages through the house looking for answers, Ben goes to repair the buried water tank, not knowing in doing so he is unleashing a long dormant creature, fiercely protective of its environment…
Reviews:
“All in all, The Tank won’t surprise you. It won’t scare you. But will have some moments of effective tension and atmosphere, but will ultimately disappoint you—despite the performance of Buchanan. It just seems that there’s nothing left in the tank for this one.” Battle Royale with Cheese
“Walker works with known elements, but he’s in no hurry to reach whatever scary stuff is found in the endeavor. The helmer goes slow-burn with The Tank, which isn’t compelling until its final moments, making for a long sit as the writing sorts through an iffy mystery and extended investigative sequences.” Blu-ray.com
“The Tank raises expectations it never quite delivers. Carefully written and shot, the movie features great production values and a strong performance by New Zealand-born Luciane Buchanan. It’s also slow, obvious, and almost completely devoid of genuine thrills.” Film Legacy
” …The Tank has a lot of what worked really well for a horror director like Neil Marshall in his earlier movies. In other words, I have high hopes for whatever comes next from Scott Walker. This dark and gritty creature feature works surprisingly well in most ways, so genre fans should make a point of seeking it out.” 3 out of 5, Heaven of Horror
“The Tank is a strong addition to the monster movie genre, filling a void for creature feature fans who appreciate higher production values and more plausibility in their character relationships.” Horror DNA
“Cinematographer Aaron Morton imbues the film with imagery of unrelenting dread, shot in glorious anamorphic widescreen. The combination of his unsurpassed camerawork, Walker’s deft direction, and compelling performances from the entire cast elevate The Tank above many recent horror films that failed to deliver the most crucial aspect of its genre; horror.” 4 out of 5, Irish Film Critic
” …The Tank does continue some genuine moments of suspense and manages to carry quite the heavy load off the strengths of its creature effects. Slimy and gross, snarling and even horrifying, the creature here just plain works. If you’ve come to get a healthy dose of goopy and gross, The Tank can be skipped; if simple monster-movie creepiness is more your cup of tea, The Tank delivers in spades.” Josh at the Movies
“While The Tank hardly wins any significant points for originality in plot or dialogue, it scores big in its execution […] practical effects and physical creatures will win out over computer-generated monsters any day of the week […] Walker is wise to show the bare minimum of the creature, not just because it adds to the impact of the effects but because it lets our minds fill in the blanks of what we aren’t seeing.” The MN Movie Man
“The implication here, of recurring mistakes and lessons never learned, can easily be extrapolated into our own present when we are all reaping the consequences of a long tradition of treating the land as a commodity and doing reckless damage to the environment. So even if you struggle to understand why an eyeless creature might peer into a window or be granted slasher-like POV shots in the woods, these monsters expose our own brute blindness and primitive drives.” Projected Figures
“From the loving family slowly realizing they’re not alone out in the middle of nowhere to the bloodthirsty creature lurking in the shadowy depths of the underground tank, this film has the look and feel of what you want out of a slow burn creature feature while delivering the blood-filled horror you crave. If you’re a genre fan then definitely search this one out.” Punch Drunk Critics
” …there’s not a lot to complain about. Yes, The Tank is quite unoriginal and you’ll be able to recognize where many of the plot elements came from, Aliens, The Descent, and Stephen King’s Graveyard Shift among them. But, as I said in another recent review if you can’t find a new angle for an old story you need to tell it really well. And it does just that.” 4 out of 5, Voices from the Balcony
For YouTube reviews, a trailer and more movie info please click the page 2 link below
