The Veil (2005 Video) User Reviews

I can recommend it as background ambiance for a Paint Ball Party..

[Ten-Inch-Toni · 5/10 · 24 May 2021]

Running time is nearly 2 hours. Needs some serious editing. Story is more than a bit hard to follow.

Not because its too cerebral but because the characters are completely covered in battle gear and the camera work would make The Blair Witch motion sick

At the halfway point I really felt like the film had started all over again. So much so I stopped it to check. The flow seems to follow military "hurry up and wait" philosophy. I never knew it to be possible but you can get board by scenes of people frantically running around in the woods.

It couldn't decide if it was a zombie film, a Virus endeavor, double-agent, governmental conspiracy or just boys having a grand paintball fight in the woods with zombies.

I've debated with myself whether to recommend this or not. It's hella-long, but like I said, I really like the soundtrack/music. (That is except for the few minutes of dramatic operatic-type music toward the end. It wasn't the very end or I'd think "Well, it's not over 'til the Fat Lady sings") Except is wasn't quite over.

This would be a good film to run in the background of a Halloween party or outdoor barbeque where there were paintball competitions. I've given this 5 stars and I'm going to put it into my so bad its good list. Oh, definitely a guy flick even though I'm a chick.

I suspect she won't mind it for the music.

Watch it while doing something else.

[milkhole213 · 4/10 · 23 November 2021]

The Veil is appropriately the 13th film in the Decrepit Crypt of NIghtmares box set as it's an abominably long TWO HOURS, THIRTY FOUR MINUTES and THIRTY SIX SECONDS! Did we really need an extremely low budget vampire epic of this length especially one from the UK. To really pour mustard in the wound (like in a BJW death match from the early 2000s) almost the entire film is in black and white. Perhaps this is a tribute to NOTLD but it feels more like an insult to both that film and the viewer.

The movie starts out with a vial of some mysterious substance spilling into the water at an English seaside resort. Why this film wasn't called The Vial is beyond me, I imagine The Veil is a reference to the shroud between the realms of life and death. We then get an extended sequence of holiday seekers at a seaside resort set to music that I imagine sounds like something out of Koyaanisqatsi or something despite never having seen that. The music is good regardless. This first part is in color and we switch to black and white for most of the rest of the movie. It's mostly about gas-masked solders with non-descript personalities doing very little while in a house and occasionally blasting some zombies. This actually has a good amount of action but it's so ridiculously long it can help but have extended parts which drag and nothing happens. There's some decent low budget splatter here the highlight being a zombie dismembered with a chainsaw with the top of it's head shorn off, landing on the grown spinning like a top. Soldiers shoot lots of zombies and eventually turn on each other but you won't care because it's just so, so long. There's a bleak ending as well.

I imagine this is a terrifying hurdle for anyone trying to get through this box set but it's a breeze compared to the 130+ minute Abberdine County Conjurer from the Tomb of Terrors. At least stuff happens here and it feels like a film with an actual purpose most of the time. Cut the runtime in half and this would feel like an action-packed and fairly splatterific low budget zombie quickie instead it comes off as a borderline endurance test.

Cannot Recommend

[davidm-14 · 1/10 · 18 April 2015]

Looking like it was shot with an old Sony Handy-Cam, The Veil tells the story of a small seaside town overtaken by something in a test tube which gets in the water and causes the residents to turn into homicidal zombies, I guess. A group of impossible-to-understand-what-the-hell-they're-saying military types (because they're always wearing gas masks, it's difficult to understand which character is which, either) arrive in town to locate survivors.

The townspeople never appear very scary, and most appear to be just folks limping around wearing winter coats and hoodies, even through the introductory scenes seem to establish it as summer, and it wasn't until about halfway through the movie that I figured out the movie takes place in the UK.

The washed-out color and blurriness of the video doesn't help, especially with night shots, so it's almost always difficult to see what's going on, and what's being said. This, and the lack of any explanation as to what's going on makes it a difficult recommendation.

Raw Footage...

[azathothpwiggins · 11 February 2022]

THE VEIL is a zombie holocaust movie of epic proportions. It's massive length (2h:30m) is both a positive and a negative.

POSITIVES: Because it's so long it allows the story to unfold naturally, like the viewer is there for the ride. It also makes the sudden jolts of panic and death more shocking, adding to the overall sense of doom. The zombie attacks are fierce, brutal, and unpredictable. The atmosphere is suffocating and claustrophobic.

NEGATIVES: Because of its length, there are many static points of nothingness. Lots of muffled banter through gasmasks. While this adds to the realism, it gets pretty tiresome.

FINAL ANALYSIS: What this movie really needs is editing. Watching it makes it obvious that at least 30-45 minutes could be lopped off, leaving a much tighter, more intense film. Still, in spite of the flaws, there's enough good here to recommend it...

Sacrifising my eardrums, I know all they spoke and happened

[gacsogergely · 1/10 · 30 March 2022]

The first flaw of this trash is, it couldn't deside to be an arthouse film, or an action flick. And it definitely tries to rip off the black&white Night of the Living Dead.

Another confusing element is, that there are THREE masked groups, not one. This is anything but appearant in the film, and a later addition as the trailers - which are the last part of the movie, attached after the credits - simply says there are 3 masked guys. All four trailers.

Now here is the entire story, with timecodes: The first 8 minutes is how the zombie-virus spread in not-Racoon -city. Basicaly: Agent Incompetent while checking if he carries the virus-sample from the handover, did not notice the sample is not in the bag (which he opened and checked) but in the hand of the seller.

38 minutes: the crew/a crew decides it is not worth searching for survivors anymore, and starts beelineing to the evac-point.

1 hour 8 minutes: the masked people run low on ammo, so decide to use improvised weaponry.

1 hour 26 minutes: it is revealed, Agent Incompetent is one of the masked people.

1 hour 30 minutes: it is revealed, that Agent Incompetent was sent in to not let out anyone from the town, "to protect the already tarnished reputation of the agency".

At the 2 hour mark the masked people arrive to the evac-point.

2 hour 10 minutes Agent Incompetent start shooting at the fellow agents.

2 hour 25 minutes all masked people are dead aside Agent Incompetent.

2 hour 27 minutes the arriving helicopter shoots Agent Incompetent. There's no checking for any rescued data, or anything.

The End.