The Facility

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 another film about a medical trial gone wrong, in which a number of diverse characters are locked inside a medical research institute and tested with some new drugs which have unusual and unexpected side effects. This film has almost exactly the same story and execution as the American-made LAST EXPERIMENT, which was also disappointing.

I think the problem with such films is that they feel very loosely-plotted and predictable. The viewer knows from the very beginning that things are going to go violently wrong so the first half of the story, the set up, is very boring as a result. This film has a cheapness of look that's not helped by the clichéd blue filter used in all of the scenes to make the setting look cold and clinical.

Recognisable cast members are limited to Alex Reid (from THE DESCENT) and that's about it. The characters are thinly-drawn and quite unlikeable and that's even before the story gets going. And once things do kick off, they do so in a predictable way that remains predictable until the end. Sure, there's some gore and bloodshed here, but THE FACILITY is depressing more than anything else and certainly never horrific.

'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.

First I'll say that I did enjoy this movie. It had a pretty cool premise, with some promise. And all of these clinical movies where people take experimental drugs, they always have the guy who's been there before and knows everything. This one has that person as well. There are some cliches but it has promise. It doesn't always deliver on that promise though. It never fully explains everything which leaves you wanting more. If you have a couple of hours and it pops up on the TV, it won't waste your time and you'll probably get into it, but you probably won't remember it long after you watch it.

Well filmed, well written, well acted and so on. There's nothing wrong with the film, it's all good but just a bit like why did I bother watching.

------------------- Surely they would have done trials on innocent lab rats prior to this debacle. Why would they let a journalist in a closed trial?