THE CLINIC (2010) Review

Directed by: James Rabbitts

Starring: Freya Stafford, Tabrett Bethell, Andy Whitfield

I have been wanting to see The Clinic for a while now and I finally watched it tonight. To be honest I was pretty impressed, even though it's not fantastic it does have a fairly unique plot and the acting and writing are both top notch.

After a fairly generic opening (a couple stop off at a motel run by a creepy guy out in the middle of nowhere) the movie actually picks up fairly quickly. 

Beth (Tabrett Bethell) and Cameron (Andy Whitfield) are an engaged couple who are on their way to spend Christmas with pregnant Beth's parents. On their way they decide to spend the night at a motel in a small country town. The owner is a creep who overcharges them and seems infatuated with Beth. After Cameron returns from a restaurant he arrives back at his motel room to find that Beth is missing. He immediately calls the police and starts to accuse the cynic and unhelpful motel owner. After assaulting the owner Cameron is taken away by the police but quickly steals the cop's gun and heads back to find his fiance.

Meanwhile Beth wakes up in a bathtub filled with ice and quickly realizes that she has been cut open and her baby taken away. After stumbling around looking for a way out she faints, but when she comes to she finds herself in the presence of three other women who are all in the same position as she. This part of the film brings up the question "why have the babies been taken and why have the women been allowed to survive?"

The answer becomes apparent towards the end of the film but I can't really say much without spoiling it.

So anyway, the four women are left to solve this riddle while discovering that somebody is trying to kill them all for some unknown reason. A little confusing no doubt, but it all makes sense by the end believe me.

The film was written very well (also by James Rabbitts) and the two twists are great if maybe a little hard to believe (especially the second). One thing I liked was that the film was set in 1979 which prevents the movie from having to use the 'no mobile phone signal' excuse and other such modern film cliches.

There isn't a lot of gore really, but there doesn't really need to be for this film to work (although I love gore so I personally wouldn't have minded if there were more)

Overall it's a solid horror film with good acting, good writing and enough twists and turns to keep you guessing. The only real problem I had was with the sudden 'disappearance' of Beth's husband Cameron in the film (you'll see what I mean), whom I kept expecting to suddenly show up and save the day.