Let us show you what you have been missing out on if you believed creature features were over in 2021. This film has it all for horror enthusiasts, from violent and bloody to disturbing and downright terrifying. As the film progresses, Death Valley, a Shudder Original action horror film released in early December, will make you want to close your eyes.
Is there a conflict going on here? Is it the survival of the fittest in the midst of nowhere, or is it something else entirely? Are humans vying for one another’s lives? These are just a few of the things you will be asking yourself after you start viewing this film.
We see characters who are pouring with blood from head to toe, blood-splattered walls, and blood all over the floor. As a result, there appears to be no way out of what appears to be a total bloodbath. Canadian director Matthew Ninaber, who comes to mind first when you think of fascinating monster movies, directed Death Valley superbly.
You will not believe it when we tell you that this movie was made on a shoestring budget. Ninaber has done some wonderful work with the digitals, SFX applications, and the unquestionably great construction of a terrible monster, so it does not appear to be one. That is right, this creature is the talk of the town.
Matthew Ninaber’s brother, Jeremy Ninaber, plays James Beckett, a soldier on the verge of becoming a father who has signed his final contract and been hired together with his colleague Marshall, played by Ethan Mitchell. As a result, the job is a straightforward extraction mission. But, like any good horror story, it has its own twists and turns. They basically have to rescue a bioengineer, Dr. Chloe (played by Kristen Kaster), from a Cold War bunker in the country of Bosvania with their crew. But, surprise, Russian military troops are stationed outside the bunker. And Chloe is hiding some extremely dangerous truths.
That, though, is the least of their problems. They had no idea ‘who’ or, more accurately, ‘what’ was waiting for them inside the strange bunker. Let us have a look at the gruesome incidents depicted in the film.
Death Valley: A Creature Feature
The opening scene of the movie shows the facility in full panic as if someone was after their lives. Chole tries to escape the place, but a coworker shoots her on the leg and she ends up being trapped inside. In an attempt to rescue herself, she records a message telling the special forces outside that if they want the research that is in the facility, they better get her out of there alive.
At this point, the audience does not know a lot about what is actually going on. Chloe is covered in blood, and that is when we find out that this whole time, she is trying to run away from the monster which is also trapped inside with her. And this is not just any ordinary monster. It has gooey liquid pouring all over from its mouth, and it looks like your worst nightmare. You might find the monster quite similar to the orcs from Lord of the Rings, but it is creepier.
We have a sudden jump from a totally dark and tense setting to a quiet and bright airfield where we find out that James Beckett is going to be a father soon. After some fun banter with Marshall, they start to get serious about their rescue mission and discuss their plan of action. We are then taken to the forest where during the process of looking for the entrance to the bunker, Beckett and Marshall come across a guy from the Russian force. And now if you’re starting to get worried about our soldiers, you might want to hold off.
The forest turns into a war zone. That’s right, the Russian guys find their location and we have an ambush. A total war scene, that’s something you weren’t expecting. A lot of people end up being shot dead. So, to save themselves, and complete the mission, Beckett and Marshall hide and then find their way into the bunker. If you thought, now, there was going to be some relief, well wait till the monster or rather monsters attack them. Yeah, those creepy creatures, there’s more than one of them inside that place.
So, they soon find Dr. Chloe, and they all try to make their way out of the facility, but the constant yelling noises of the monsters, is bound to give you goosebumps. There comes a scene where Marshall is literally hiding in a morgue, beside a corpse that was bitten by the monster. And to add more terror, once you are bitten by that monster, you will not stay human for long. Slowly the blood will mix and you will be turned into that humanoid monster. So, it is kind of a do or die situation.
And remember Chloe was hiding something? It’s actually the truth about who she really is. So, there is a monster in the bunker called Adam, who is the first human hybrid creature being contained in the bunker because the facility was trying to cross-breed that creature to possibly give a human super strength and speed. But Adam went rogue and killed all the captors. Well, more like turned all of them into the monster because that’s who Beckett and Marshall are fighting. And much to their surprise, guess who Adam is? It’s their very own Chloe, who is, by the way, pregnant. So of course, she did all this to try and save her unborn child from a place where she was created and kept all her life.
Now, Beckett burns the monster because that’s the only way to kill them and once all three of them are out of the bunker, you will probably still not feel sympathetic towards Chloe because she obviously tries to kill both Beckett and Marshall. There is still one major horrific surprise left in the movie. They both succeed in killing Chloe because she obviously has the blood of the monster inside her, but you will be shocked to find out that sometime during their fight even Marshall and Beckett were bitten by the monster.
Marshall dies in the arms of Beckett but literally until the very last minute nobody knows that Beckett was bitten as well. It happens when reinforcements find Beckett unconscious and he opens his eyes which have turned as white as the clouds.
And with the world kind of not being saved, this action-packed horror and packed with suspense film, comes to an end. Dangerous, right? Well, with that thought in mind, let’s explore in detail all there is to know about this gory monster and where does it come from. There’s a lot you still don’t know.
The Mutant Creature In A Cold War Bunker – Explained
The monster in Death Valley is very different from what you have usually seen in creature features. This monster has actually been brought to life in the movie by a biblical story. You might find it strange, but the story is quite interesting if you think about it. Beckett and Marshall have a chat about the Book of Enuch after they find the bunker and face the monster. They talk about Noah, the flood, fallen angels, and demons. Now, if you are wondering what does this has to do with the monster, this is when Ninaber decides to give our creature an awesome backstory.
The Book of Enuch is an ancient Hebrew apocalyptic text. It offers information about the origins of demons and the Nephilim. And since the creature was first found frozen in the ice, Beckett realizes that they are Nephilim. What a crazy touch for a backstory!
Just like Marshall, for the fans who don’t know what a Nephilim is, thanks to Beckett paying attention in his Sunday school lessons, we get to know more about it. The Nephilim were the offspring of the sons of God, or fallen angels, who raped the human daughters. So, they are basically the product born out of an act of pure evil and sin. Now, Beckett brings up the flood and Noah’s ark as well because according to his understanding of the myth, God sent the flood to clean the earth of the Nephilim.
Once again, this is such a cool use of Biblical myths to make us understand the horrific creature found trapped in the deep, icy cold depths. So, it’s like after hearing this story, we can make more sense about how the creature can bite and turn a human into a monster. It’s because the monster itself is a product of a godly being and a human.
Wow, that was definitely a lot to take in. But we know what else you have been wondering so far. What does the creature remind you of? Well, to jog your memories, let us tell you that the creature quite resembles the Licker from Resident Evil. Although they are obviously not the same, it’s only natural that your mind might end up drifting to Resident Evil.
The Nephilim in the movie looks like it’s wearing brains for clothes, which is kind of like the inside-out brain of the Licker. But, unlike the Licker, the Nephilim does not have a tongue. Rather it has extremely large and sharp teeth, and there is mucus-like liquid dripping from all over his body. It is as gory as it is bloody, with its large and pointy fingers and equally large feet. And obviously, it has superhuman strength with a body that is crazy huge. It doesn’t have eyes, so it hunts through sounds. You have to stay quiet if you want to live. That’s some creepy monster, right.
Now, guess who plays the role of the Nephilim in Death Valley. It’s none other than our director, Matthew Ninaber. Yeah, imagine if he was directing while wearing all that make up for the character. It must have been fun.
Our best guess about why the Nephilim attacks the humans, is probably that they were trying to protect Dr. Chloe because they saw her as one of their own, which would explain why they never harmed her and also backed off when Beckett threatened to harm Chloe. It’s either that or like any other supernatural creature, they saw the humans as a threat to their lives and so it was a “kill or get killed” kind of situation.
And as for the scientists keeping it trapped in the facility, that was purely for the reasons of self-gain. They saw how powerful the monster was and obviously wanted the same for themselves. Yeah, look where being selfish got them. That’s right, a little too much fusion of a monster with a human and you will end up dead.
Well, as gory as this monster might be, it also puts up a great fight. Better be like Chloe and stay on the good side of the monster, otherwise, you are as good as dead. But wait, that probably won’t work either. Just like any thing that is created, always comes with an expiration date, so does this monster. Turns out you can only kill it by burning it alive. Good to know that at least there was a way out for our rescue team.
Being in a horror environment, locked in a bunker with a deadly creature, Matthew Ninaber does an excellent job with keeping the terror, suspense, and gore as real as it can get. With Brent Tremain as the cinematographer, capturing the creature under reddish alarm lights, or the battle in the forest between the soldiers from two different sides, Death Valley gave a mixture of action-packed adventure and horror of something unknown.
Ninaber outperforms several other creature features that aren’t as focused on real monster performance. He certainly has a feel for monster movies. And so does his brother Jeremy. The duo really seemed to have given their blood and sweat into the making of this terrifyingly amazing experience. Wait no longer, go ahead and watch Death Valley yourself. It certainly is fantastic monster mayhem.
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