thesar-2 Day 1 of 14: Saved a bunch of money on my health insurance!I watch so many movies, many of which are horror and when I see one that's only 80 minutes, I'm stoked. Woo-hoo. Most are 2+ hours, including the wonderful Asian, specifically S. Korean gems. It's nice sometimes just to get in and out and still enjoy the experience of horror and escapism. But, this one. The Facility could've benefited from so many more minutes to flesh it out, so to speak. By the end, it feels so short-sided and eh, "barely anything happened," that we actually require more. Now, that said, what we got was well made.Eight volunteers, well, money-interested people, enter a 2-week medical research program only to find their first and only night the answer to the "is this safe?" inquiry. Things go from 0-600 in no time and panic sets in.A lot of this movie is doubtful, though I rarely trust the pharmaceutical industry. Of course they're gonna do bad things to make a profit. This felt a bit extreme and cartoonish for the most part. Entertaining as a "fictional" film and horror movie, sure. But, the suspension of disbelief is really out there. Of course, in the trump-era of the World, I guess this could really happen. I just hope it wouldn't. Bottom line: the movie does have good acting with character(s) (at least one, maybe 2) we care about, well shot and plausible situations/dialogue, but nothing much happens aside from stuff we've seen before and things we could've seen expanded on had this movie been longer. Mildly recommended as it does its job for the short 80 minutes it has our attention. ***Final thoughts: Coincidentally, I selected this as a double-feature I had not planned with Unsane for a nice Friday Evening alone with the Movies. Both worked well each other, though Unsane was 10x the movie this was, I'm not upset I saw both. It's a nice duo for anyone to select for a movie night in. They both complement each other and you can really enjoy them both for entertainment.

Spikeopath To be perfectly honest, after just viewing Ian Clark's (director/writer) The Facility, I jumped onto IMDb to find that the rating for it was exactly as I predicted. At the time of writing the film sits at just under 5/10, perhaps not a true marker since it's largely under seen and very few people have bothered to review it, but not a surprising score thus far since familiarity of formula breeds contempt...Plot basically finds a group of human guinea pigs enrolling for a two week trial at a remote research centre. They are to be injected with a new drug called Pro-9, and after their two week stay they will pocket a cool £2000 each. The group consists of the needy, the inquisitive, the bold and the stupid, and sure enough once night falls and the lock down commences, some of the participants get a reaction to the drug...It follows the standard trajectory for such a set-up. Characters are introduced, we get to know them for half hour, you quickly learn who the A-Hole is, and then it's drug reaction time and we are thrust into murder death kill and locked in siege panic. Tis a time for heroes, maybe even some interesting revelations? Who will survive? If anyone? Maybe there's a twist in the tale as well?For his debut feature film Ian Clark has played safe and utilised the low budget wisely. The pic shows him to have great promise in the horror genre, his keen sense of claustrophobic atmosphere is evident and carries the story well, and he knows how to construct a horror scene. He also gets more than solid performances from his lively cast, where Alex Reid (The Descent/Wilderness) is a reassuring presence.It isn't over bloody, or even terrifying and full of boo jump shocks, but it tickles away at the nerve that doesn't like to be unhinged, and it has a good ending to boot! If you are searching for something new in the sub-genre of zombie/infected siege movies you will be disappointed, but this is actually better than some of those bigger budgeted sub-genre movies. While it marks Clark out as someone British Horror fans might like to keep an eye on. 6.5/10

Blub1256ber "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.

Skinsofourfathers 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.