''The Task'' is a 2011 British

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

directed by Alex Orwell, written by Kenny Yakkel, produced by

Christopher Milburn Christopher Milburn is an England, English actor and Film producer, producer. He appeared in ''Casualty (TV series), Casualty'', as well the last two series of ''Rumpole of the Bailey'' as the title character's handsome colleague, Dave Inchcape. ...

and

Courtney Solomon Courtney Solomon (born September 1,1970) is a writer, director, producer, and entrepreneur from Toronto, Ontario. He has been involved with production, marketing and distribution of over 80 movies. Life and career At 19, he formed Sweetpea Ente ...

, and starring Alexandra Staden,

Victor McGuire Victor McGuire (born 17 March 1964 in Tuebrook, Liverpool) is an English actor perhaps best known for playing Jack Boswell in series 1–3, 5-7 of Carla Lane's '' Bread'', Ron Wheatcroft in every series of '' Goodnight Sweetheart'' and its 2016 ...

and

Adam Rayner Adam Chance Abbs Rayner (born 28 August 1977) is an English actor. He is known for television roles including: Dominic Montgomery in ''Mistresses'', Dr. Steve Shaw in ''Hawthorne'', Aidan Marsh in '' Hunted'', Bassam "Barry" Al-Fayeed in ''Tyran ...

. The film, inspired by ''

MTV's Fear ''Fear'' (promoted as ''MTV's Fear'') is an American paranormal TV, paranormal reality TV#Supernatural and paranormal, reality television series that originally aired from 2000 to 2002 on MTV and spawned the genre. The program follows a group of ...

'', was produced by After Dark Originals and released by

Lions Gate Entertainment Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered in ...

on 28 January 2011.

Plot

Six terrified people, Shoe (

Ashley Mulheron Ashley Gisele Mulheron (born 8 February 1983) is a Scottish actress and television presenter. Mulheron trained as an actress on the one-year course at Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Mulheron was in the British Comedy Horror ''Les ...

), Randall (

Marc Pickering Marc Pickering is an English stage, film and television actor who appeared in '' Sleepy Hollow'', ''Calendar Girls'', and HBO's '' Boardwalk Empire''. Early life and education Pickering was born in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire. He was first ...

), Toni (

Amara Karan Amara Karunakaran (born 1984), known professionally as Amara Karan, is an English actress who made her film début as Rita in Wes Anderson's '' The Darjeeling Limited''. The film premièred at the 2007 Venice Film Festival. Karan's second film r ...

), Dixon (

Texas Battle Texas Quency Battle (born August 9, 1980) is an American film and television actor, known for his role as Marcus Forrester on the CBS soap opera, ''The Bold and the Beautiful''. He also established Texas Battle Foundation in order to help unprivi ...

) and brother and sister Stanton ( Tom Payne) and Angel (

Antonia Campbell-Hughes Antonia Campbell-Hughes is an actress, writer, director and former fashion designer from Northern Ireland. She is best known for playing Natascha Kampusch in 3096 Days, Marie-Antoinette in Dangerous Liaisons and the titular role in Cordelia. ...

), are kidnapped to take part in a new reality show which will see them spending a night in an abandoned prison to win $20,000. Show host, Taylor (

) handcuffs the contestants together, removes their belongings and sends them into the prison. The contestants find their way to the Warden's office, where they unlock themselves. Soon after, a TV monitor turns on, revealing an evil clown who warns the contestants of the Warden (

Valentin Ganev Valentin Atanassov Ganev ( bg, Валентин Атанасов Ганев; born April 7, 1956) is a Bulgarian theatre and film actor and theatre director. Career Born in Ruse, Bulgaria, Ganev graduated from the All Russian State Institute for ...

) who used to work at the prison, before being sentenced to death for murdering inmates. Randall is set a task to travel to the

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

of the prison. With a microphone to communicate with the others, Randall ventures to the chapel and reads a prayer backwards to summon the spirit of the Warden. After completing his task, Randall returns to the others. Outside, the show's team, including Connie (Alexandra Staden), Sclezi (

Sam Stockman Sam Stockman (born 19 May 1982) is an English actor and musician, whose most notable acting role is as DC Emerson Kent on the UK crime drama ''Whitechapel'' from 2009 to 2013. Acting career Stockman began acting at the age of 10 in the indepen ...

), Big Daddy (

) and Snow (Sean Mcconaghy) begin to lose connection to some of the cameras inside the prison. Sclezi is sent in to fix them, however, he is stabbed in the eye by the Warden. Dixon is set a task, to remain lying in a hole in the ground. Once he is inside the hole, the Warden arrives and locks him in. Connie, Big Daddy and Snow see this, but believe the network had twisted the show to also make them contestants. They let the game continue. Shoe and Randall are set a challenge to eat a meat believed to be human flesh, which they complete. Toni and Stanton are sent to the

gas chamber A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or other animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. Histor ...

for their task. Stanton locks Toni in a chair in the gas chamber, and puts a

gas mask A gas mask is a mask used to protect the wearer from inhaling airborne pollutants and toxic gases. The mask forms a sealed cover over the nose and mouth, but may also cover the eyes and other vulnerable soft tissues of the face. Most gas mask ...

on her. As the chamber fills with gas, Stanton is instructed to find the switch to stop the gas somewhere in the prison. When he leaves, the Warden appears in the chamber and removes Toni's mask. While Randall and Shoe make their way back to base, they come across the Warden, who stabs them to death. As Stanton turns off the gas, the Warden knocks him unconscious. Connie starts to become worried and sends Big Daddy and Taylor into the prison to check up on the contestants. They are soon attacked, and Connie attempts to warn Angel to get out of the prison. Angel believes this to be part of the game, as she has just been given the task to free Toni and Dixon. She enters a cell and finds a knife before the Warden appears with the key. She stabs him with what she thinks is a fake knife, and retrieves the key. She then finds Stanton hanging by his ankles in a cell, but before she can help him, the Warden stabs him in the neck and the abused inmates devour him. Angel flees, and runs into Connie, who has entered the prison. The Warden returns, and as Angel runs, the Warden catches up with Connie. As Connie prepares to be stabbed, two more Wardens, Shoe, Randall, Taylor and Big Daddy reveal the show was a set up, and Connie was the real contestant. After the initial shock, Connie is sent to retrieve Toni, Taylor to get Dixon, and the others to leave the prison. Taylor finds Dixon murdered in the hole, and Connie realizes Toni is dead. The Warden locks Connie in the gas chamber and gases her, while the others are sealed into the prison. Angel manages to escape out of the prison to Snow, having discovered people were being murdered by the real Warden. Snow follows Angel with his camera asking her for a final word; not knowing the rest of the cast and crew are trapped in the prison, Angel responds by breaking his camera.

Cast

* Alexandra Staden as Connie *

as Big Daddy * Sean Mcconaghy as Snow *

as Taylor *

as Angel *

as Shoe *

as Toni * Tom Payne as Stanton *

as Randall *

as Dixon *

as Scelzi *

Rob Ostlere Robert Ostlere is a British actor, best known for his portrayal of Arthur Digby in the medical drama '' Holby City''. He made his first appearance on 2 January 2013 and departed on 7 June 2016. Early life Ostlere graduated from the Royal Acad ...

as Pisser * Atanas Srebrev as Bob * Jonas Talkington as Clown * Valentin Ganev as Warden

Production

Release

''The Task'' received a limited theatrical release in the US on 28 January 2011, Rated R for violence and language. It was released on DVD on 26 July 2011. Of the one review the movie holds on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the review certified it 'Rotten'.

Reception

The task got a poor reception at the top crabbers movie bonanza. Fans of the genre finding the ending particularly disappointing and devoid of any horror.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Task 2011 films 2011 horror films British horror films British slasher films Lionsgate films Films shot in Bulgaria Horror films about clowns 2010s English-language films 2010s British films