Traveling across Australia to get to her mother’s for Christmas, pregnant Beth (Tabrett Bethell Legend of the Seeker) and her fiance Cameron (Andy Whitfield Spartacus: Blood and Sand) decide to stop for the night at a motel. Even though Beth has a premonition about the place, they decide to stay, but neither of them end up staying for long. What will the two of them do to keep their baby safe?
When I pulled The Clinic out of my mailbox, I was immediately skeptical. Any movie that comes straight to DVD usually means that it wasn’t good enough for theaters. Adding that in with the synopsis on the back of the film claiming that the main characters are married when they aren’t in the movie, really made me squirm. However, once I started the film, I was immediately sucked in by the passion of the actors.
Supposedly inspired by true events, the clinic is a heart wrenching thriller. When a group of pregnant women find themselves trapped with cesarian incisions, the race is on to find their missing babies and to avoid the killer among them. Who is holding them and why? More importantly, why are the women dying off?
The Clinic takes a harsh look into the trials of motherhood and endangered children. Without giving too much away, the strength of this film is that amazing and bizarre strength that comes out when a woman is separated from her newborn. This film reminds me a lot of the film Bane (2008 Amber Pictures) and the series Persons Unknown (2010 NBC), or any other film that focuses on kidnapped people in sociologically troubling situations. This film is probably one of the most successful versions of this genre I’ve seen in a long time.
Some may not enjoy the film, finding it too emotionally draining. If you’re looking for a funny or light horror film, this isn’t the movie for you. The Clinic needs to be viewed a serious manner, or it just doesn’t work. If you need your movie to have all the loose ends tied up at the end, you should also avoid this film. I come from the mindset that movies shouldn’t have everything all figured out in the end, and respected that this movie leaves a lot of questions unanswered; but for many viewers, if there are any burning questions left, they can’t enjoy the film.
The film’s DVD isn’t as impressive as the movie; using just the bare bones of scene selection, a trailer and subtitles. The DVD that I received was the unrated version of The Clinic, containing three extra minutes of footage not seen in the R-rated version. The film quality and color were spot on, the extras would have only enhanced the film. I really would have enjoyed a behind the scenes look at the movie, or any information on the “true events.” Anything would have been nice, because I really wanted to know more.
The first feature length film from James Rabbiits was surprisingly great. I’m looking forward to his upcoming film The Aurora Stone, and hoping that he continues on the road of making worth while films. I would recommend this film to anyone who enjoys a horror movie that tugs at your emotions. This film is terrifying because of the premise, and based in 1979, without any DNA testing labs, slightly plausible.
Film Score 3/5 DVD Score 1.5/5
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