Just what I expected

Absolutely Fantastic

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

My first review here. It was shown on "Horror" last night, first time on UK TV. Cast? Generic cardboard cut outs (Asian guy, studious, Welsh guy serious/flirty, Old guy who has been in medical experiments before, a journalist, an Irish woman who is connected to a drugs company, giggly 19 year old dyed blonde girl, preening male model type). Some compare it to 28 days. Wrong. The script on this film was dire. The premise borderline asinine (why not just walk two miles to the nearest road?) I am only here as I dozed off and missed the ending. The Old guy was zonked out, the Welsh guy nervously surveying the spy cameras - the Irish woman smoking and the journalist worrying. What happened next?

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

The story is almost a cliché of many preceded movies. The paradigm of getting rid of a group one by one has been used excessively. Blood scenes were made with good taste without having violence that we used to see as a stereotype of this category.Disconnecting the internet and phones were an exaggerating idea since patients had access to the whole facility. Also the feasibility of leaving the facility but insisting on staying at it were unbelievable. Last, but not least, the medical background of volunteers is questionable. It requires lots of knowledge even for physicians to be aware of all that.The ending was good, but the whole experience was below satisfaction.

Seven people arrive at a remote clinic where they have volunteered to be guinea pigs for a new drug. They think it will be an easy ride but it turns out there are unexpected horrendous side-effects. The guinea pigs turn into homicidal lunatics.Featuring Aneurin Barnard who recently starred as David Bailey in We'll Take Manhattan, this is a picture that you cannot say doesn't do what you expect. I think that's the problem though. There isn't really anything unexpected in this flick, which wouldn't really matter but for the fact that a feature set solely in a clinic needs to bring something different to the table to stave off tedium. Guinea Pigs reminded me of last year's Stormhouse, which was another low-budget British horror film set within the confines of a secure building. That one was a military bunker and the threat was supernatural but the problems were the same, i.e. a lack of variety and a dull set-up. I can see how the limited sets allow for a cheap production with not much cost on set-design but the writers really need to be a bit more imaginative to make up for this. On the plus side, it's a movie that doesn't over-stay its welcome as it is pretty short. Brevity is a good thing. But, unfortunately, this one is a bit mediocre otherwise.