Radiant (2005) User Reviews

Innovative story

[ElProfessor · 7/10 · 16 June 2010]

To truly appreciate this movie one needs to forget about the constraints put on it by the low budget. The visuals can be a little tough to handle sometimes, but they are more than made up for by the innovative story, editing, and soundtrack.

It seems that people want to degrade the movie for its low production value, but it is not a stretch when I say this movie reminds me a lot of early Cronenberg: enigmatic scientist makes a medical discovery which may or may not be effective and when it is tried on volunteer subjects (who soon become tortured patients) the outcomes are not what had been predicted. And all of done on a shoestring budget with laughable special effects (the parasites which resemble turds in SHIVERS).

There is too much good writing to call this movie trash and while the acting can seem forced in spots, some seems so natural that it is impossible not to feel the emotion of the characters. For example, the tears of Ed (James Cable) in the latter part of the film would be shared by anyone who spent a life afraid of interpersonal communication only to make friends with the same "test subjects" he was supposed to be monitoring. Ed remains the creep -the Igor figure of the film- for most of the plot, but the film ends with him as the character with whom we most identify.

The plot is slow to develop, but for good reason. This is not a sci-fi/horror film, this is straight science-fiction. The depth of relationships matters much more than the gore. All of these people -even the government agents- are pawns for more powerful agencies. It is meant to be cerebral. In the end Ed is able to break free from the system and begin to see the constraints of the structure he had believed in for so long.

The editing can be called into question, but with a larger budget it would not even be an issue. The soundtrack is seamless and adds the right amount of intensity and anxiousness to the film.

The nascent elements are there for some good, novel film-making. I look forward to future SILOmedia productions.

-El Profesor

Worth the watch if given the chance

[videoviews52 · 7/10 · 28 June 2010]

The story here is a captivating one, four people three of which are accidentally infected by this man made virus which is suppose to kill off other viruses but hasn't been tested enough to be sure of what it really does. As they wonder and wait in fear to see what will happen they decide to flee into the desert rather than become guinea pigs in a lab somewhere and wait it out to see what happens without infecting other innocent people. I see some other reviews for Radiant that suggest that the film is boring, well I think one of the problems is the ways the film was promoted, this isn't your typical "Hollywood" zombie like film but it was never made to be that type of film. Instead this is a character driven sci-fi thriller that instead shows a much more realistic take on what could possibly happen in case something like this were to ever occur. In spots you can see where the film suffers a bit from it's low budget but over-all the settings and acting give the film a realistic feel, the cast did such a terrific job, I was taken in by their characters and really began to care for them. The story is slow but it is deliberate, you are not getting a horror film here but instead a science fiction film that is just that so don't go into this thinking you aer going to watch another "Resident Evil", and you are going to find it to be as thought-provoking as I did. I thought that the film-makers did a great job at creating a thinking man's sci-fi, the kind that are never made anymore. This is Writer/Director, Steve Mahone's debut film and if this is any indication of the kind of cinema we are going to see from this man then I certainly look forward to what he has to offer next. The bottom line is you need to know what you are getting here and I hope my take on it helps in doing so, if you get a chance to see the find do so and make your own mind up on how it is, I thought for the budget the story and characters did a terrific job at setting a mood that is certainly desperate.

Rambling, disconnected dialogue with series of images often repeating. Very poor plot execution.

[PyrolyticCarbon · 1/10 · 26 August 2005]

The movie starts off promisingly enough, the use of imagery and simple short clips convey the bigger story, which would normally need a considerably higher budget than the one here. However it did start to worry me as it continued, combined with another overly husky Max Payne type voice over the movie was starting to look not so good. I hoped it was just the introduction to the story.

The story is what really caught me and took me to this movie. The idea that a research scientist has created a virus that actually protects the cells it infects from other infection was an interesting scientific idea. Then that subjects who had the most bizarre disorders sought out the scientist and offered to be his human experiments made me think this could be one very good small movie. Yet the introduction hadn't gone well.

There did seem to be a change of pace as the movie turned to recorded interviews with the four main characters in the movie, the test subjects. Although the acting wasn't superb, there seemed to be a lot of scope for character development throughout the movie, and the recordings were done quite well with a varied mix of characters. However these faded through the movie. They weren't used again after a few brief clips and I did feel that there was a missed opportunity to provide some great character development by reflecting back to them, however it wasn't to be.

The imagery becomes increasingly disconnected from the story, often repeating to represent something that is still happening. This disconnection and repetition is reflected in the annoying and distracting commentary. It began reciting words one after the other. Short, meaningless sentences and reciting none too relevant or interesting scientific ramblings. If there was something to be described, four or five words would be used, it was too long, repetitive, circular, looping,...you're getting the idea.

Now this could have been to reflect the confusion and of the character, slowly becoming caught up in his own thoughts, rambling due to lack of food and water. What it actually did was to cause me to totally switch off to the voice and by the closing stages of the movie I found that I hadn't been listening to some of the ramblings.

A number of times that an event occurs the camera shows all the characters one after the other for their reaction, which seems to be somewhere between confused and thoughtful. There are repeated fades from the same scene to the same scene, for instance a character sleeping fades to black, then fades back in on the character sleeping again. Look, we know the character is asleep, we know time has passed, please move on. Overall there are just too many atmospheric cuts and long, hanging shots to fill time.

The acting was not bad, and the characters were okay, but not exploited and developed. When they were interacting there were some truly cringeworthy moments. For example when one of them asks if they are hungry the camera looks to each of them and returns to a group shot, they pause, look to each other, turn back to camera and say slowly "No". It raised a snigger or two. Their dialogue was slow, glossy and either it was missing altogether or totally unnecessary, there seemed to be no middle ground where the dialogue hit spot on.

However, there were some good scenes, but they were really hard to find unless you viewed them in isolation, and this is what it almost looks like has happened with this movie. The film has been looked at as a series of scenes and not as a complete story.

Nowhere is this seen more than in the main storyline. The characters are infected with the virus that has been killing the animals, the one that was being engineered for them. We're told that it develops in stages to something dramatic, and so that is what we expect. What we get are the characters eating loads together, all throwing up once together, water pouring from their mouths in unconvincing streams, then they all fall asleep, these are the phases which all happen really early in the movie. Then, they all say "Good" together when asked how they are, and that's it. That's the virus done, nothing else happens.

There could have been so much more done with this movie, so much more developed with the virus and it protecting them from all manner of harm. It could have explored a serious change of these characters as it infected and took over them, it could have developed these characters, shown them making decisions and doing things that connect back to their character shown in flashbacks to the interviews.

The ending isn't even confusing, intriguing or thought provoking. It just shows something that happens and that's it, although in the long, drawn out style with the irritating voice over above it. I really struggled with this movie and watched a number of Press members walk out (including one famous TV critic leaving within the first twenty minutes), I stayed, but regretted the lost time.

Not exactly The Andromeda Strain

[Red-Barracuda · 1/10 · 23 August 2005]

This movie is about a group of people who are infected by a powerful man-made virus. They are pursued by government men into the desert.

The premise of the film is quite interesting but is hampered by the fact that the delivery is extremely boring. At no point does the film engage with the viewer on any level. Granted, the miniscule budget is a problem but is not the reason for the film's failure. Much more at fault is the very po-faced delivery. There is a great deal of narration but, unfortunately, the narrator has an annoyingly over-dramatic voice. Very little seems to happen to these people and well before the end you will be rooting for the government men - the sooner they kill the protagonists the sooner the movie will end. A much better title for this film would have been Four People Run About In The Desert With Some Stock Footage Of A Helicopter. Overall, very tedious.

Boring

[CuriosityKilledShawn · 3/10 · 21 August 2005]

If you suffer from insomnia then Radiant would be the best way to send you into a 7-year coma. The film is so preposterously overwrought and mundane that it's hard to imagine that director Steve Mahone could overlook such obvious dullness.

The story has an exiled Doctor (who we never get to see) move out into the desert to create a vaccine that will cure all diseases by filling the hosts full of antibodies that can combat any infection (yes, just like that episode of Futurama). The vaccines don't work and the human guinea pigs become infected with a virus that kills within 48 hours.

Not wanting to be caught by the Government guys in masks the group head into the desert for cover, hoping that the sunshine will kill the virus. All of this is narrated by Michael, the only one of the quartet immune to the infection. And it's the most boring narration ever. They could have cast someone with an interesting voice but instead we get someone with less vocal personality than Clive Owen.

On top of this the editor insists on fade-cutting more than half the movie, giving it a weird dream-like feel and increasing the audiences desire to go to sleep. It's no surprise that half of the audience walked out of this, I was not one of them for some reason. But I bloody well should have.

The ending is supposed to be shocking and clever and foreboding. But it's plain and simply not. A relief yes, but not dramatic in the slightest.

The utter cheapness of this production and muffled sound that renders a lot of the dialogue unintelligible cripples what could have been an interesting sci-fi story if it had better actors, cooler locations and a sense of urgency. As it is, Radiant is a snoozefest.

Walk out fest

[agfw · 2/10 · 22 August 2005]

This movie is simply rubbish. I have to say I am an expert of rubbish movies. I reserve the "1" rating for movies that are rubbish but funny, but this film is just tedious and certainly not crappy in a funny way but crappy in a crappy way. It gets a "2" so those of you out there can distinguish between the ones that will make you laugh and the ones that will make you fall asleep. There are scenes in this movie where the actors are looking at something, their expressions are of amazement and there wide eyes and slack jaws tell the audience that what they are looking at is going to be profoundly amazing, this simply isn't it's just a cupboard or even more desert. It has to be pretty god damn awful for me to walk out, let me tell you, I walked out and so did quite a few people.

THE ELSEWHERE

[nogodnomasters · 1/10 · 28 May 2019]

A scientist goes to the desert to try to create a "good virus" one that works with the host to fight off an infecting virus. The Feds step in as the infected people scatter to hide in the desert. They survive to supply use with a boring monotone monologue which drags on through the entire film. It was too low budget to film a scene, allow the audience to watch it and have it develop. If listening to some dime store philosophy is what you want...

Kid safe, but they won't be able to sit through it. One punch on the hacker card.

Oh yes, the DVD also has deleted scenes, which I couldn't bring myself to watch.

Japanese, Russian, and low-budget movie fans unite!

[robsjunkstuff · 8/10 · 19 October 2005]

Imagine the Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky were making 'Stalker' today on DV and had an 'El Mariachi' like budget to do it on. That's what Radiant made me think of. Particularly the way it uses water. Like Tarkovsky, this movie is in love with the use of water in different ways to connect the viewer with a since of reality and nature. The image of filling up a hazmat suit with water for storage in the desert is amazing. I had to laugh when I read one reviewer here complain that the water pouring out of the characters mouths was a bad special effect. It's my favorite moment in the movie. It's clearly supposed to be stylized and not "Realistic". It's like complaining that the violence in Kill Bill is bad because it's not natural. It's very Japanese and it's the thing that makes the climax of the original Japanese 'Ring' so much more exciting that the American version. Because when the girl comes out of the TV she REALLY comes out of the fringing' TV! I've read some positive reviews for this movie and some negative ones and I have to say that if you see Sci-Fi in the description and you're expecting mainstream, X-files like science fiction you've probably got the wrong movie and will be disappointed. But DV is clearly the edge of American cinema now and if you get your kicks from seeing movies pushing the edge with ideas or enjoy the influence of Japanese and Russian filmmakers on American movies then I would recommend this movie.

Radiant

[istareatthesun · 8/10 · 17 September 2005]

After reading the other reviews on this site, I wonder if I saw the same movie as everyone else.

Radiant is about four people, three of which are accidentally infected with a man-made virus with the purpose of purging the body of all other viruses. However, all of the prototypes of the virus up to this point have behaved in unpredictable ways, so no one is exactly sure what it does. When the characters are suddenly forced to make a decision between spending the rest of their lives as government lab rats or fleeing they choose to escape into the desert and allow the disease to run its course without infecting others.

At this point I'd like to agree with everyone else who has posted on this film: Radiant is indeed slow, but not in a bad way. The film deliberately takes its time to breathe in order to extend to the viewer the unease and eeriness that the characters are experiencing (think Wim Wenders on digital video). As each of them are waiting in extreme tension to see what happens so is the audience.

But the film is more than merely waiting. As the story unfolds, we begin to know the characters on an extremely intimate level. For all that they know this disease is going to kill them and as they all prepare themselves for that possibility they bond with each other in an unique and powerful way which the audience experiences too. And when it comes down to it that is what Radiant is about--connection. It explores human relationships in an original and in depth manner that left me speechless.

Radiant is a patient, very cerebral, deeply human film that deserves to be watched with an open mind. Kudos to you Steve Mahone for a remarkable and moving first effort.

Finally

[mdelier · 10/10 · 27 June 2010]

I was privileged to see this movie on two occasions, first being at the Dallas premiere. If you like to actually use your brain during a film, a film that has all of the elements that allow anyone to watch and associate instances in their life, dreams, or fears then this is the film you cannot miss. The acting and cinematography are phenomenal and quite literally pull your darkest psyche into the forefront while you try to keep up with the ever changing influences on the characters, while still trying to associate your own decisions and beliefs with the responses confronted by the characters throughout the carousel of what if's that are displayed throughout the storyline. Without giving anything away, this is one of the pinnacles of the independent scifi thrillers in recent memory that absolutely walks through the gray area of real life and fiction. An area that collectively, as a human race, we are are going to have to decipher more and more as we progress in medicine and technology. I would recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys walking out of a theater or seeing the credits role on their TV at home and enjoys deciphering the film and it's parallel avenues in the life you see around you.

Art film of Ideas - not just a sci-fi virus movie

[Liz-39 · 9/10 · 31 July 2010]

First of all, you should know what you're getting into when you see this movie. A plot summary is misleading, but here it is anyway: Four people with unexplained illnesses find a secret lab in the desert, where a scientist is trying to develop a "good" virus. This virus will invade a human body, driving out any other illness. So the only symptom of this virus would be to make people healthy.

So far, all of the tests have been fatal.

The government finds out and takes over the lab to shut down the dangerous experiments. Four people (three of them were accidentally infected with the latest test batch) flee across the desert.

They do not know what will happen - will the virus kill them, or the government? Sounds like an action movie, right? It is very definitely not a run-from-the-shadowy-government action movie.

The film has a slow, contemplative pace. There is an almost surreal quality about it. The film opens with videotaped interviews of the patients. These grainy, extreme closeups are intimate and dreamlike.

As they travel into the desert, the landscape seems unreal, with saturated colors and polarized skies. There are thunderclouds on the horizon, puring down tremendous amounts of rain very far away.

The musings (in voice-over) of the uninfected man cover ideas about the speed of light, about the chemical composition of primordial oceans, and the pain of connecting to other people.

These four broken people are healed - they become radiant.

So, in short, if you are interested in ideas, and how we fit in the universe, and in finding a way to overcome the fear of opening yourself to others, this is a film for you.

It takes the time to slow you down, then rewards your patience.