The 2006 British – German – Luxembourg – French – Spanish co-production Minotaur is an interesting but flawed film, which doesn’t quite live up to it’s novel premise: retelling a Greek myth in the form of a horror movie.
Set in some indistinct period long, long ago, the world is ruled by a powerful empire, presided over by the ruthless King Deucalion (Tony Todd) and his sister Raphaella (Michelle Van Der Water). Raphaella also happens to be the high priestess of the empire’s cult, which worships a minoutaur – a half bull, half man creature – that lives in the labyrinthine caves beneath their castle. The cult also requires that, in order for the empire to continue flourishing, eight youths are gathered from an outlying village and sacrificed to the beast every year.
This unhappy status quo is challenged when Theo (Tom Hardy), the son of a chieftan, manages to engineer himself a position as one of the chosen youths. He’d previous met a leper seer, who had told him that his girlfriend – a previous victim – is still alive in the labyrinth, and he’s willing to do anything he can to rescue her. Together with another seven youths, he’s cast into the minotaur’s lair, where they rapidly get picked off one by one. However, he soon meets with some assistance from an unlikely source: Raphaella, who’s hiding out in the labyrinth to escape from her brother’s sexual advances.
In it’s favour, Minotaur looks pretty good. At times it does come across a bit like The Scorpion King on a budget, but in general the costumes, sets and art direction are distinctive enough to maintain interest. The minotaur itself is also an impressive beast. Considering that this wasn’t a hugely expensive film, it’s a scary looking and realistic monster, partly because it’s not a CGI creation, and it’s very different from the traditional ‘man with bulls head’ depiction of the creature. Director Jonathan English – who’s probably better known as a producer, does an OK job, keeping the pace moving and generating some tension.
However, as a film it doesn’t really live up to its promise. This is primarily down to the script, which has a couple of serious problems. Firstly, apart from Theo, none of the characters are of much interest. The youths are barely fleshed out at all before being bumped off, while Deucalion comes across as more thuggish than sinister. Secondly, it all becomes incredibly predictable… it really needs a few more twists and turns, or at least to throw in something out of leftfield. Finally, the whole subplot about the evil empire is rather a distraction, being neither particularly origional or interesting – perhaps the film would have worked better if the whole story was told purely from the perspective of the youths.
There’s also some very variable acting. Tom Hardy is very good, bringing a certain intensity to the protagonist and making him something a little darker than the bland hero he could have become. But some of the others are very poor indeed. Tony Todd, who’s not by any stretch a bad actor, is pretty bad, and his character would perhaps have worked a bit better if portrayed in a less bellicose fashion. Michelle Van Der Water is an attractive young lady, but her acting leaves a certain something to be desired. There are cameos from Rutger Hauer and Ingrid Pitt, which is nice, but they don’t really get to do much.
Made for the Sci-Fi TV channel, this has a little more about it than most made for TV stuff, and certainly has decent production values for its $7 million budget (probably helped by being shot on DV), despite the occasional glitch. But, with a bit more attention paid to the script, it could have been a good, as opposed to a not-bad, film.
