The Grey is an exhausting movie. Before completion, it confronts a series of frights and fears conjured not by the demonic, computer-generated sort, but instead by dangers both natural and man-made.
Joe Carnahan (Narc, 2010's The A-Team) co-wrote, with Ian Mackenzie Jeffers (author of the source short story Ghost Walker), and directs The Grey, filling it with with realistic obstructions for its main group of plagued characters. Carnahan and Jeffers set up the basic premise and then drag a dwindling party of seven through some gruesome encounters with an array of fierce predators.
Liam Neeson stars as John Ottway, hired by an Alaskan oil company to shoot and kill wolves who threaten the working humans. His obviously troubled state is reflected in a brief early scene in which he looks like he might commit suicide. In these short, inchoate scenes, Carnahan creates an ominous atmosphere with a flurry of brief images, a polished proficiency unseen in his earlier films.
Ottway joins a group of other oil field workers on an air flight. It malfunctions and crashes in the middle of nowhere, leaving only a small group alive to fight the brutal winds and subzero cold. They quickly discover they have also landed in the middle of an area heavily populated with wolves.
The group of seven follows a predicted path laid down by survivalist films. The formula calls for the arrogant one, the nerdy one and so on, but all led by wolf expert Ottway, who generates resentment before becoming the de facto leader.
The consistent drama comes in the perils the men face and how the men overcome them - or don't. Some of the special effects, including variable quality green screen projections, animal animatronics, and even some puppetry, come from respected effects supervisor Greg Nicotero and his team.
One of the most chilling moments of the film, or any film, comes in a scene in which a large pack of wolves descends on the men at night. Their growls can be heard but all that can be seen are the illuminated sets of eyes peering in on them, seemingly ready to pounce.
It's chilling, much like the rest of this unnerving work.
BOO ALLEN is an award-winning film critic for the Denton Record-Chronicle. MOVIE RATING
The Grey
***
Rated R, 114 minutes.
Opens Friday.
