The Facility

The story is almost a cliché of many preceded movies. The paradigm of getting rid of a group one by one has been used excessively. Blood scenes were made with good taste without having violence that we used to see as a stereotype of this category.

Disconnecting the internet and phones were an exaggerating idea since patients had access to the whole facility. Also the feasibility of leaving the facility but insisting on staying at it were unbelievable.

Last, but not least, the medical background of volunteers is questionable. It requires lots of knowledge even for physicians to be aware of all that.

The ending was good, but the whole experience was below satisfaction.

"The Facility" has an eerie suspense in it, at least during the first half. Barnard, Coleman, Reid, Roberts et al are all capable performers and deserve much better scripts. Unfortunately I was able to see the direction the film was going by the time the first three "victims" had isolated themselves and gone bonkers as a result of the "pro-nine" drug they had been administered. It culminates in little more than a bloody mess, and a few brief follow-ups to signal that the 80-minute film is over - apparently it's based on an actual occurrence. I had been hoping for more of the eeriness, for example: when Katie discovers that Adam (Barnard) is actually one of the controls. The concept of people lured to a remote facility in order to earn money and finding out that they are being systematically tortured and left to their own devices is nothing new, but I thought that the first half-hour or so was very well done and suspenseful. Barnard is probably a star in the UK and is very expressive. He was also starred in "Citadel," which is even worse - louder and even less coherent and more gory than this ultimately disappointing thriller.

No. We aren't falling for it. This is just a poor retread of 28 Days.

A bunch of people go to a remote facility to become human guinea pigs for some secret, unknown drug. Good premise, right?

Wrong. We are expecting the people on the drug to do some really freaky things.... maybe mutations, maybe hallucinations or visions, right?

No. Nothing like that. Just some short of breath people with skin rashes running around with no indication of what is going on.

The problem is the pacing. The movie moves like molasses. Plus, there isn't even enough molasses to make waiting worth it.

Here's my summary; A diverse group of English get a mystery drug, they run around like a Benny Hill skit, there is a tiny bit of violence and then BOOM, the movie is over and we miss most of the denouement.

Guys, it's a well acted, well produced movie. But those aren't a substitute for a story. Booo! Booo!

'The Facility' is about a group of middle-to-upper class people who volunteer to test a new drug called Pro9. If you can get over the fact that all but one appear far too well-to-do to feel the need to be human guinea pigs, then you have a reasonable premise for a horror/thriller movie.

Naturally, things go wrong. The drug makes people go crazy and look like they're suffering from extreme sunburn. I'm sure the writer wanted to convey a message about how bad pharmaceutical companies are. However, if that was the 'hidden message' then it's a little too well hidden.

What transpires plays out like a low budget zombie film (almost like a rough prequel to 28 Days Later). When the side effects start to show themselves in the test subjects, they just go crazy (think 'The Infected' from 28 Days Later) and, due to the 'sunburnt-effect' make-up, appear like zombies.

What's left is people running and hiding from their former colleagues all the way through it.

That wouldn't be so bad if the characters were a little more defined. However, half the test subjects are pretty unlikable and the others (even the good ones we're supposed to root for) are just too bland for us to be bothered about. The acting is as good as you can expect, but it isn't the actors' fault that they have so little to work with.

It's not the worst horror/thriller film out there, it just probably could have been a little better.

There was a very solid acting group here. Which I think is what draws you in from the beginning. But actors can only work with what they are given. Here it isn't much. You should recognize a familiar face in one of the actors as he just played a very decent agoraphobic father bent on saving his daughter. But there are too many moments in this film that leave you scratching your head and wondering "What? Why did this just happen?" Or worse, "Why didn't this just happen?" Those to questions haunt you through the film until it becomes a race to see if you can stand watching until the end. Honestly it was a good production team coupled with a great acting team wasted on a story that just wasn't there. I guess if you are one of those people that are literally obsessed with medical horror maybe. But even that is a stretch. Avoid this film but check out what else the cast has done. Because I can tell you it is better than this film.