Black Site

Or whatever you want to call them. Other dimension beings? Now I really didn't think too much while watching this. This is supposed to be fun. And for the budget they had, this is pretty decent. Suspense is high, effects are pretty good (again always considering the budget restrains), script seems decent and acting is ok too.

If you fancy this kind of movies, you will have fun. It's a bit of a throwback to a time when the 80s ruled, when you had stock characters, puns around almost every corner and many other things. Nothing special overall, but a fun little movie that will work for some more than for others

Low budget. so-so acting. so-so picture. not recommended. very fast forward ...

There's a lot going on here, but what is most readily apparent and important to note is that filmmaker Tom Paton is obviously a huge fan of John Carpenter. The expository sequence at the beginning, preceding the opening scene, is an unmistakable nod to 'Escape from New York' and 'Escape from L. A.'; the same is true of the scenario generally. Even the font used at varying points seems borrowed from Carpenter's classics, and composer Max Sweiry's score is irrefutably inspired by Carpenter as it swirls together modern synthwave and more passive ambient themes. That's not to say that 'Black Site' has Carpenter written all over it top to bottom, but the foundations are plainly evident, and additional such garnishes reveal themselves throughout - take that as you will. As a huge fan of Carpenter myself, I'll take all this as a plus; now that I've used the name five times in these few sentences, you won't hear it from me again. (Maybe.)

Beyond these tasty underpinnings, we can quickly begin to form an opinion about various aspects. I like the very concept, for example, taking a different and more action-oriented tack toward cosmic horror than what we usually see from the genre. While we get glimpses Elder Gods in their unearthly forms, I appreciate from a budgetary standpoint the need to emphasize a more resource-friendly approach to depicting them - which is to say, we see these otherworldly beings as they are restricted to human forms. It's not unfair to say that this method is broadly less satisfying as a viewer, including in action sequences, but so it goes. Further down the slide of unfortunate shortcomings is that as the narrative begins we can make a reasonable guess fairly early about which characters will or will not survive, and dialogue is rather meager and bland.

What strikes me most, though, as an unfortunate weakness is that the look and feel of 'Black Site' is kind of incomplete. Despite clear promise as an action flick, there's not a whole lot of action overall - but there is a lot of dialogue. Despite ostensibly playing with cosmic horror, the feature never does very much with it; 'Black Site' could have been a story about pretty much anything outside of Elder Gods, and it would have played out no differently. And while I place no abject blame on production designer Matt Page or art director Toni Michieli, assuming they were limited by the budget, nonetheless their departments don't make a substantial impression here. It's not that the production design or art direction are bad, only that they come across as too neat and clean. Not to name-drop Carpenter again, but we can feel every pebble underneath our feet, the texture of every wall, he dirt and grime on every surface, as Snake Plissken traverses New York and Los Angeles; 'Black Site' lacks the richness of detail to draw out the verisimilitude and truly make the viewer Feel It.

With all this said, I don't think this movie is altogether awful. I like it for what it is, and I recognize the work that was put into it. Though they aren't all that they could have been, I do like the fight scenes, and the effects; I like the ideas in the screenplay. I love the music. It just seems to me that Paton's reach exceeded his grasp; he possessed the imagination and vision, but not the means to best realize it. For such lack the picture struggles to earn its keep as action-horror, and all the earnestness of cast, crew, and filmmaker alike isn't enough to make up the difference. Factor in more specific deficiencies, and sadly the end result falls further - not abysmal, not by any means, and not without any value, but no better than average. Provided one is aware of the issues I've described, I think this a decent enough recommendation for a lazy day when you want genre fare but don't want to have to actively engage with it. Temper your expectations, and 'Black Site' is modestly enjoyable for what it is.

Arriving at a secure military facility, a technician at a site where they send various beings from different dimensions back to their homeland finds himself thrust into battle when an intended deportee has his staff invade the site to free him and must endure a battle for humanity.

This was quite an enjoyable and somewhat intriguing effort. One of the biggest aspects to be had here is the fact that there's a rather clever and complex backstory at the heart of the film. The central basis of this location keeping a dangerous race of vicious beings from invading the world, featuring elements of black magic and protection spells that are used to ensure that setup, works rather well to bring this out to a solid start. This setup offers the kind of structure system for the rest of this one, managing to admirably fit together within the parameters of a military compound that's staged to be a manner of sending them back to an alternate dimension incapable of returning back to our society. That also leads to the outbursts of action in here that are rather spotty but have some rather enjoyable elements featured here. The few brawls here between the various agents of the military facility has some nice hard-hitting action with the fine addition of some stellar swordplay as well. With that setting up the more generally impressive military tactics within the compound where they're forced to battle the numerous soldiers coming in to rescue the captured being. This all manages to offer up some exciting moments when it occurs. There are a few issues here, though. The main problem is that the film, for all the good it does at setting up the mythology in this universe, there's some absolutely confusing material in here. It takes way too long to figure out that the entire point of their attack on the base is to allow him to transform in order to allow him to reunite with his beloved who has already gone through the process. Not only is that finally revealed at the very end but it's handled through a series of intense and overblown conversations that are intended to drive that out easier than what it eventually shows and that makes for an immensely confusing and convoluted effort. As well, the film is just outright boring and bland. The idea of this one being based solely on the endless conversations and pretentious dialog that goes on between the group and the diabolical being which just turns the middle section into an endless drag and relieves a lot of the tension and suspense that had been built up by then. Simply watching this supposedly evil being just standing around spouting off threats about the downfall of humanity drains the film of action, lessens the intensity and undoes a lot of fun to be had here. These are the biggest issues overall.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

I was initially lured in by the promise of the Elder Gods, so I believed this movie to perhaps be based upon some Lovecraftian theme. So I sat down and watch the 2018 movie titled "Black Site" by writer and director Tom Paton.

Well, this movie wasn't all that and a bag of potato chips. In fact, the storyline was horribly mundane. Nay, it was downright boring and uneventful. So it was a major disappointment to sit through the movie, especially because it proved to be not very entertaining.

It should be said that the movie delves somewhat into a Lovecraftian theme, for sure, but without it actually being set in the world that Lovecraft created with his Mythos. So that was a little bit of a shame. And while the movie does focus somewhat on Elder Gods, it was merely an entity taken form in the guise of a mortal man. Yeah, talk about it being anti-climatic, but of course this was cost efficient. But wait, there is an Elder God about, a very Cthulhu-like being that you see in the distance throughout the movie (the same shot I bet). But this god-like creature serves absolutely no purpose to the story.

And while we are on the topic of the story. Wait, what? This was abysmal, and it felt like it was something written by the hand of a 10 year old whom just started to read Lovecraft and wanted to make up his own story. It was just that stupid.

The movie makes very little use of acting performances, because there isn't the need for any proper or convincing acting, apparently, throughout the entire movie. Well, I can hardly blame the actors and actresses, because they virtually had nothing to work with in terms of script, character or dialogue.

Do yourself a favor and don't get suckered in like I did. Some of us suffered through this movie so you don't have to.

"Black Site" scores a mere three out of ten stars, solely because of the CGI and the theme of the movie. Everything else was just not worth the effort.