Black Mold

This isn't a new concept for a film. People go into decrepit places and unusual events happen. Instead of the supernatural occurring, this film follows the idea of "What is real and what is imagined?" I liken it to Session 9 as we aren't certain what is happening even though we are seeing what the characters see.

The set up has a mildly amateurish quality foreshadowing the idea of fear. But both of the main actors do well with less than stellar script dialogue in the beginning. Once the movie moves into the second section, the plot begins to expand into what is the meat of the story, and now acting and mood improve.

I was drawn to this film waiting for the reveal and loved that ambiguity remained a central point but with enough clarity that I wasn't frustrated. I was questioning in the film, uncertain of what was imagined or what was real, and I never felt completely lost. Decent low budget yet quality film.

Whilst at a lovely little genre-festival in my home country, a mate and I had to choose between two appealing titles that were scheduled at the same time but in different screening rooms. Of course, we chose for the least mainstream one (*), playing in the much smaller screening room with uncomfortable stools! But hey, the plot of the film - "Black Mold" - sounded promising, and my pal told me writer/director John Pata previously worked as an editor on "The Stylist", which is a movie I quite liked.

Our gamble wasn't a success. We sort of went through the same process at the lead protagonists in the film. Like them, we went in exploring the unknown because it's our hobby, but when we walked out, we weren't exactly satisfied. Oh well, at least we still walked out alive and (relatively) sane. That's more than can be said for Brooke and Tanner.

For their passion of urban exploring, they travel across the USA and sneak into abandoned buildings full of mold, ramshackle floors, and other unforeseeable dangers. Brooke is a champion in scouting terrific locations, and she takes Tanner to a massive and remote former research facility. Once inside, they are confronted with a dangerously violent squatter who prevents them from leaving. While trapped in the facility overnight, the molded walls and floors cause Brooke and Tanner to go insane (at least, that's what I suspect was happening) like the squatter already has. Tanner sees his worst fears manifesting in front of him, and poor Brooke relives her childhood traumas over and over again.

There simply isn't enough content and horror material in "Black Mold". The film easily could have worked effectively as a short feature, but as a 1 ½ hour movie it's tedious, repetitive, and slow. John Pata attempts to compensate for the lack of action by endless talking. Especially Tanner babbles non-stop. At first you simply wish for him to keep his mouth shut, but as the running time strolls forward at a snail's pace, you actually wish for him to die painfully. Eventually Pata is forced to revert back to genuine and classic horror symbols (like scarecrows and werewolves) to generate some real tension and action, but none of it is credible. Agnes Albright is an adequate actress and the filming locations are atmospheric (we shouldn't expect anything less from urban explorers), but that's hardly enough to recommend "Black Mold" to anyone.

(*) the film that played in the other theater was "It Lives Inside", which I'm sure I'll watch at some point soon.

Clearly, they didn't have much money although the effects are pretty good. I just got a little annoyed with the characters just staying in the awful place with the mold and with the dangerous guy when they could easily walk somewhere else or at least breathe fresh air outside. Maybe if they couldn't exit the building so easily or if they established that people exposed to black mold don't have the common sense to get away from it then I could accept their actions more easily. I was hoping there would be transforming or some kind of unique monster but it's more just a drama with some tension. I was pretty engaged though.

The movie was on it's way to being a really good film minus some rough dialog, but i feel like they didn't know how to end the film and it just comes off as lazy writing, they did a great job with the atmosphere and cinematography but ending it like they did just felt like they didn't know how to land it.

There were some pretty good practical effects used so props to them for not going the CGI route but at the end of the day i feel like the ending hurt this film really bad. You can't build up suspense and atmosphere and never finish the story you started to tell, it's a real rug pull the audience because this film had potential to be great but a mediocre send off takes a lot of points off.

That is why I have to give it a 5 out of 10, It's such a shame because i was really invested in the story.

When I sat down to watch the 2023 movie "Black Mold" from writer and director John Pata here in 2024, it was actually the first I had ever heard about it. So I literally didn't know what I was in for, aside from it being a horror movie of sorts. I was intrigued by the movie's title. And with it being a horror movie of sorts, then of course I had to watch it, given my love of all things horror.

While "Black Mold" proved to be watchable, I have to say that I was disappointed with the script. It was a fairly empty script. And I have to say that I didn't understand why Brooke (played by Agnes Albright) and Tanner (played by Andrew Bailes) just simply didn't walk out from the building and just simply walk away. It made zero sense for them to remain in the building with the things that were happening. Plus, the storyline just wasn't all that impressive.

The acting performances in the movie were fair, in all honesty. The only familiar face on the cast list, for me, was actor Jeremy Holm.

Sure, I managed to sit through the entire 92 minutes that the movie ran for, but I was only mildly entertained. This is not a horror movie that will find its way back on my screen a second time, however, as there hardly was sufficient contents for the first viewing. Nor is it a movie that I would recommend horror afficianados to go out of their way to track down and watch.

The movie was lacking a drive to engage the audience and invest themselves in the narrative and the characters. And the massive plot holes just wasn't really working out in favor of the movie.

Ultimately, not a particularly outstanding or memorable movie, but a watchable movie. My rating of writer and director John Pata's "Black Mold" lands on a four out of ten stars.