The Lair (2022) review: Neil Marshall’s soldiers vs. monsters desert story is a rather fun ride

Neil Marshall is an interesting filmmaker. True his Dog Soldiers and The Descent glories have not being matched in the years that have followed but his genre film game is often fun, even when flawed. But after the grim and unpleasant The Reckoning and the panned Hellboy (the latter of which did have some mad if messy charm), The Lair may not be looked upon as a full-on comeback but it is a creature feature action film that was good, simple, brutal fun. 

Royal Air Force pilot Lt. Kate Sinclair (Charlotte Kirk) is shot down in war torn Afghanistan, taking refuge from her pursuers in a bunker, which contains some darkness-dwelling, demented, monsters that are soon unleashed putting everyone in the near vicinity in danger. In this case a camp of ragtag soldiers nearby, who Sinclair attempts to warn.  

The Russian bunker of monsters in war torn Afghanistan plot is as silly as it sounds but not played overly serious. Which is to its strength. I enjoyed the jumble of characters and the Resident Evil-esque action/story, and even when the film goes a bit too bombastic for its own good towards the end, I managed to stick with it’s military-being-chomped-by-monsters beats. 

The story and origins of is monsters could be fleshed out more, and there is a tease of an end boss style big bad that never arrives, but The Lair benefits from leaning into its B-Movie elements and just focusing on being enjoyable, fast and bullet-flying. 

Yes, there are some ropey effects here and there (though not too distractingly so) and Marshall has done the what lies beneath creature feature or soldiers tasked with creatures plots before (and better) but this director still has a good grasp of this genre and delivers.

It also helps that some of the characters are likeable enough, despite the initial thoughts that they might not be, meaning when they end up on the menu (or not), you do actually care about there fates to some degree. Which is a nice feeling rather than watching the clock waiting for everyone to end up as a light lunch.

Sure there are faults overall but as Saturday night entertainment goes, The Lair brings some bite, and it is nice to see Marshall enjoying himself again in the director’s chair without studio interference or joyless bleakness. My advice: pour yourself a drink, sit back and just take it all in. Maybe that next breakout is coming soon.