Sometimes fate is more interesting than
life! I was curious about this film awhile back, as a very early
trailer dropped in 2017 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnDbYHRGqao), but when I saw a September 2018
release date and never saw the finished film, only in festivals. I
was not sure it was going to be be released on DVD or streaming
services.
Enter the amazing Epic Pictures in
conjunction with Dread! Black Site will finally be unleashed April
9th, 2019. There is also a limited special edition Blu-Ray
which is Region Free, has director commentary, deleted scenes and all
of the Dread trailers to date on it, link at the end of the review.
Whew...on to my review. Black Site is
one of those tense brooding, Dario Argento build up films.
Writer/Director Tom Paton crafts an undulating story, mixing sci-fi,
horror, and especially near the end a whole boatload of action!
Although the plot is basic, how the
story unfolds and the eventual outcome is what makes Black Site
entertaining. Essentially the entire film takes place in an
underground, long abandoned research center that has been re-purposed
to send beings known as 'Elder Gods' back to their own realm. Much
like a 'weigh station' or holding place, prior to transport.
The character flaws of people who work
at the facility are made evident, One person is relegated to a
certain area due to her PTSD, and is passed up for promotion. Very
often lower budget movies never take this kind of time to develop the
characters, (Incidentally many strong female leads), and in Black
Site a solid 35 minutes is taken for the set up to the action!
Acting wise, the film is average, never
bad, my only small gripe is more emotion perhaps was needed when a
person in the film is killed off, but this never detracted from the
enjoyment of the film. The other issue, I guess since I watch a lot
of action films is, the way the fights are executed. I think that the
choreography and actor fight training needed to be better. I am sure
with a few extra days or a week of intense choreo, the cast who are
all young and fit, would have no trouble selling the fights better. I
am sure A LOT, has to do with budget. The thing is even a lower
budget film, if you have a copious amount of fighting and
inexperienced actors in the fight game, they need to be trained, case
in point Zom Ammara, in Kill 'em All, she had zero training in any
type of screen fighting, or real martial arts, and she was a central
action character in the film, so the weeks she had training, worked,
she was fit and looked bad ass on screen.
Not going to go into too much details,
as I never put in spoilers, especially if a film is unreleased. I
will give Black Site a strong rent, a 6.5 out of 10. That said, if
you rent the film, and like it, def recommend buying the Blu-Ray as I
am sure the additional deleted scenes and director commentary are
worth the price.
Actually the Blu-Ray can be pre-ordered
now direct from Epic Pictures, and is on sale now for $14.99!
https://epic-pictures.com/merchandise/black-site-blu-ray
Support indie film, purchase legal
copies! Itunes link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/black-site/id1455692053
