After sitting through Scream of the Banshee I wasn’t sure if I was up for a second After Dark Original film. Nonetheless I sat down with The Task (a title that is begging for negative headlines) and you know what? It wasn’t remotely as painful to watch as Scream of the Banshee was (but also not quite as entertaining as Banshee’s audio commentary from director Steven C. Miller).
The Task is reality television gone awry (although not in the glorious way that Death Race 2000 is) as six young contestants are locked in an abandoned prison to compete for $20,000. To win the cash prize the contestants need only to complete their assigned tasks, which are based on their greatest fears, and survive until morning. But with the ghost of a ruthless warden wandering the hallways there’s no guarantee that they’ll be alive come first light of dawn.
It’s not hard to see where this is heading but Kenny Yakkel’s (Syfy’s upcoming 51) script at least throws in a couple of twists towards the end to keep the film from being entirely obvious. The characters are a predictable mix of stereotypes but so are the casts of just about any reality television show. The performances are generally good, particularly from the actors playing the contestants. There is a little gore but probably not enough to entice those that simply want to see heads roll. I suspect gorehounds would rather watch a film about the warden’s twisted ways rather than just being teased by his ghost. Overall The Task is light on real scares but heavy on atmosphere and it works just well enough to be entertaining.
The only bonus feature is a brief behind-the-scenes bit with interviews with the British cast (which explains a couple of British phrases coming from the film’s American characters).