[Film Review] Isolation (2021)

All around the world, 2020 was the year of the pandemic; and for so many of us that also meant lockdown. It’s been fascinating to see how creative minds have reacted to this radical shift in circumstances; some taking the lockdown as a setting to employ (as in Rob Savage’s Host), while others extrapolated on the feelings it produced (such as Ben Wheatley’s In the Earth). Isolation combines the two: it is a nine-story anthology set during “an increasingly deadly outbreak” that looks at various responses to the crisis, some taken to what I would hope is an extreme conclusion.

Each story seems to express what the “lockdown era” felt like to the filmmakers in question; and it’s funny, the film as a whole reflected something of how I felt about it too. The first short (Larry Fessenden’s “Fever”) seemed painfully slow at first, and I found myself hoping that the whole collection wasn’t going to turn out that way; but time itself seemed to change during that year too. Persevering on, I found that even though each segment had an individual style, they largely shared a similar pace; and that reminded me of the way we all had a shared experience of the COVID pandemic despite different perspectives.

All the Isolation shorts were filmed in lockdown conditions, during our real pandemic, which gives them all a strong sense of being based in reality. Continuing through the second and third segments (Andrew Kasch’s “5G” and Dennie Gordon’s “The Dread”), I asked myself with each one is this what it was like, really? Souls were certainly being bared during each of these brief tales. The biggest emotional jolt came from the fourth segment (Bobby Roe’s “Pacific Northwest”) as the protagonists were two small children living alone and demonstrating the resilience (or denial) required to do so; that piece was also the most beautifully shot.

Isolation’s short films are all quite personal, touching on a wide range of themes such as paranoia, lack of control, grief and loneliness; and I could sympathise with the writers who all seemed to be at a loss about the scale of the disaster. Everyone in the film (and indeed in real life in recent times) seemed to acknowledge the pandemic was widespread, but it was impossible to speculate whether they were in the middle of it, or if it was going to carry on getting worse indefinitely. (Our government initially announced three weeks’ lockdown, in March 2020: how naïve that now feels.)

Isolation is not the sort of anthology film that has a wrapper or overall arc to it, like the V.H.S. films or (my favourite) Southbound. Each piece is a distinct short (though thankfully with just a title at its start, rather than a complete set of credits), but each one belongs in the same world; this may not be apparent at first, but steadily connections and references emerge. Whether we are in the UK, Germany or the USA, we are all at risk from the same virus… which reminds me: this is not a film to watch if you are in need of some sense of hope. The overall experience of Isolation is that of sharing a gruelling experience, like the film equivalent of a support group: it could be draining or it could be cathartic, depending on the individual.

What Isolation definitely is though, is a horror film. It may be dreamlike or contemplative at times, but there are masked antagonists, violence and indeed gore at times; an exploration of how people could react, when times are at their worst.

Isolation featured in FrightFest 2021 and comprises the following short films:

Fever (NYC) - Larry Fessenden

5G (San Diego) - Andrew Kasch

The Dread (Los Angeles) - Dennie Gordon

Pacific Northwest (Seattle) - Bobby Roe

Meat Hands (Chicago) - Adam Brown & Kyle I. Kelley

It’s Inside (London) - Alix Austin & Keir Siewert

Gust (El Paso) - Zach Passero

Homebodies (Miami) - Alexandra Neary

Comfort Zone (Berlin) - Chrisitian Pasquariello

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