Black Site

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.

So much potential. I love the idea but it was not executed well. I think it needed a more experienced director / producer team. I do think there's potential with these guys though.

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.

Someone dumped a bunch of money on this and I'm trying to figure out why. This is a buddy cop movies but only in the most cliche ridden way. Cop 1 can't seem to pass the Sargents exam which makes cop 1 mad, cop 2 cop 1's partner/mentor gets injured cop 1 with visible chip on shoulder breaks all the rules to help save cop 2. Every cop show every buddy cop movie has this plot several times over. Every good/bad buddy cop movie has comic relief like say Pesci in "Lethal Weapon" this has that but with a needy English man who constantly mentions his girlfriend and as far as I can tell has almost no purpose other then to exasperate cop 1. The major difference between a buddy cop movie is that this has all powerful Gods that somehow can be subdued by a skillet bashing the side of the head which also raises an interesting question, why would a skillet be sitting on a desk in an underground holding station for greasy haired immortals. The fight scenes are pretty good except like most bad martial arts movies they wait to fight the hero one at a time rather than attack all at once. Cop 1 and cop 2 are solid actors who do a good job. Everyone else is a caricature of all the side pieces from the buddy cop movie playbook. If your a fan of every cliche filled good fighting evil film this could do it for you, but all I saw was a pale imitation of Lethal Weapon.

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