'Double Blind' is an enjoyable spin on '80s horror thrills

In an isolated research facility somewhere in Ireland, a pharmaceutical corporation holds a double-blind drug trial - where both the participants (Millie Brady, Akshay Kumar, Diarmuid Noyes, Abby Fitz) and the researcher (Pollyanna McIntosh) are unaware of the drug's effects. Within a matter of hours, the side effects soon become clear - if anyone falls asleep after taking the drug, they die. As the hours wear on, the participants begin to lose their grip on reality as panic and fear sets in...

It's right about the time that Die Hexen's synth score kicks in as blood splatters across the screen that 'Double Blind' hits its stride, calling back to the greats of sci-fi horror like David Cronenberg and John Carpenter. It's always gratifying to find a horror movie that has the best of influences, and even more gratifying that it's an Irish crew of filmmakers that are making it all. As with last year's 'LOLA' and with Paul Duane's 'All You Need Is Death' still to come this year, it's heartening to see genre cinema finally getting some kind of traction here.

'Double Blind' follows an agreeably pedestrian story - a group of hapless innocents are locked together in a drug trial that soon descends into madness and murder with faceless corporate overlords overseeing the whole thing. Again, it's exactly the kind of vibe Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett would approve of. What's more, 'Double Blind' makes no bones about tying the desperation of some of the applicants to the current situation here in Ireland - one of them is trying to get enough money from the trial to move out of their cramped flat shared with four others. That aside, the characters remain frustratingly underdeveloped throughout the movie and ultimately serves to make them disposable when the trial begins to exact a body count from them.

Ian Hunt-Duffy's direction and the script from Darach McGarrigle keeps the whole thing moving at a relentless pace, and the effects are grisly and convincing. As mentioned earlier, Die Hexen's synth-laced soundtrack just adds to the atmosphere and as the cast chases one another down sterile lab corridors with knifes in hand, you can almost imagine the video tracking lines coming up as it plays. 'Double Blind' is by no means original, but it wears its influences proudly and openly and has enough vitality to sustain itself past cliché.