Shellter (2009) review - "Gimmie Shellter"

In the aftermath of a post-apocalyptic fallout, a woman awakens in an underground medical shelter and is forced by a deranged clinician to perform sadistic experiments on other survivors in order for her to survive. Why does she do it? 
Because those experiments are either performed on them...or her.

Even though Saw promised the franchise’s final chapter in October, it seems that new age kidnap-torture films will continue carrying on the trend. Thankfully, directors such as Dan Donley will make films like Shellter with the intention to entertain his audience by focusing on interesting plots and meaningful characters in the forefront while keeping carnage as a supplement.

Shellter begins with our lead character Zoey (Cari Sanders) waking up from a peculiar slumber, finding herself flat down in a hospital bed of some eerie underground medical facility. The Doctor (William David Tullin) comes into her room to check on her vitals and provide an update on why she is in his care. You see the world as she knew it has gone all Omega Man (beauty, eh?), as an infection turned a majority of the Earth’s inhabitants into mutants and left only a few remaining human survivors. The good news is that Zoey is one of few lucky human survivors and is safe with the Doctor in his “shelter”, secluded from all harm. The bad news is that she is going to have to spend the rest of her existence down in the creepy shelter because good alternatives simply do not exist.

For one thing, this infection has not only mutated humans and poisoned the air, but also tainted the food and water. If Zoey leaves, the potential for infection is high and will not be allowed to return, per the Doctor’s constant threats. If she does leave the shelter, she will forever have to wear a gas mask and figure out how to survive without any sustenance. If that is not bad enough, she will constantly be dodging the numerous amounts of mutants who would want to kill her. In a “pick your poison” moment, Zoey decides to remain with the Doctor, his creepy assistant, known only as Nurse (Maria Olsen from a Man-Cave indie fave, Die-ner), and his shady rescue team who brings back other survivors like Zoey to the shelter.

Life in the shelter is pretty grim. The Doctor is a bit deranged, but he seems to mean well. On the other hand, The Nurse appears to be warning Zoey about the Doc’s bad intentions but keeps coming across as a crazed psycho. This is partially due to her lips being surgically glued shut by the Doctor because, well, she told lies about him. Fair enough, no? 

If that doesn’t turn you off of our Doctor in charge, how about him serving up human meat from both infected and non-infected corpses for food? Apparently all of the real food remaining in the world has been affected, so it’s either cannibalism or starvation. If that doesn’t even make you want to stock on apples to keep the Doc further away than arm’s length, how about his tests? No, not like written exams and filling in bubbles with #2 pencils. More like stimulation tests.  For example, strapping a survivor to an electrically-charged chair, asking them questions, and shocking the hell out of them if they answer incorrectly. Only he does not push the button to physically initiate the electrocution. He makes Zoey do it. If she refuses, she would be forced to trade places with the person in the chair. And it is not a stretch to say that the other person would trade with Zoey in a heartbeat if given the chance.

While not for the weak-stomached or weak of heart, Shellter contains a large deal of gore along with a share of uncomfortable scenes that were not put in the film just to showcase some carnage either. Believe it or not, these scenes help develop the story towards an exciting conclusion and are not there just to create complete shock factors. The elite of all unnerving scenes in this film is the aforementioned electric chair trivia game and the thespian trio of Sanders-Tullin-Sophie King, the latter portrays the unwilling contestant/rescued survivor Rose, completely sells it. Especially Sophie King. Since it is awards season in Hollywood, someone needs to throw an Oscar her way. Her performance creates some real seat squirming moments in her brief screen time.

One great way to effectively operate on a low budget is to limit your surroundings. Donley nails that with the film's claustrophobic setting inside the dingy below surface clinic that has "back alley" written all over it. He also develops a nice pace that gets you all amped up by about the film's midpoint and executes a great visual style - like in the dream/flashback sequences. It's looks like old school 3-D stock, but it works. There's also steady plot curves being thrown around for the first half of the film that keeps you from deciding on certain conclusions. Is the Doctor really telling the truth about the outside world? Is he just a kook who is perfectly fine living underground and eating people? Has he simply developed a God complex? 

The film is reminiscent of Misery mixed with some post-apocalyptic and torture gore subgenres...and that is meant as a genuine compliment. Supported by some great acting from leads Sanders and Tullin, Shellter is a film worth viewing and a real nice change of pace from the usual formula seen in these type of flicks, separating it from the pack. Don't miss this one!

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RATING:

3.5 out of 5 Creeper Santas

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