An elite military unit encounters supernatural entity, known as the Elder Gods, that force them into battle against an army from another world.

Dread Central and Airpick Pictures presents a new high-action, sci-fi flick by the name of Black Site (2018), from British writer/director Tom Paton (Redwood, smh), which showed at last year’s 2018 Frightfest. Though not a horror movie, its shadowy and dingy look and throw-down fight scenes give this feature a tinge of the thriller, and its attention to CGI graphics gives this movie a welcome boost of efficacy.  

In 1926, the U.S. organization, Artemis, was created in order to combat invading alien entities snatching the bodies of humans in order to walk the Earth. However, in the 1980’s, these ancient entities, called “elder gods”, found a way back into our dimension and on one fateful night took the lives of two military personnel, parents to a little girl named Ren, who later grew up to become Agent Reid (Samantha Schnitzler). She aspires to join the elite military unit, Artemis, and avenge their deaths. One day, Agent Reid is invited to view a “deportation”, the term for sending these aliens into the other dimension, at the famed Black Site where these elder gods are first held for torture and questioning. It turns out that their latest capture, named Erebus (Kris Johnson) populating the body of a criminal, is the very same elder god that killed Agent Reid’s parents all those years ago, and they are somehow supernaturally and spiritually connected. An elite fighting group, followers of Erebus, come to free the captive alien from the facility and all hell breaks loose – it is agents vs. ancient aliens, set within the concrete walls of Black Site. 

The visual effects that give this movie its sci-fi elements were a pleasant surprise. Though I’m not sure what the flurries of particles in the light beams would be, scientifically, the columns of light that beam people up surprisingly do not look cheesy, and that added “particles” effect was a unique visual for the movie. Not to mention the mother-ship is an imposing mechanical and tentacled looking vessel looming off in a foggy distance, and the electric beams emanating from these body-snatchers was a nice touch. The synth-pop music gave the movie a distinctly late 80’s/early 90’s feel, and the style of choreography for the fight scenes reminded me of the same as well – not up close and personal per current trend, but far away shots and obvious choreography like a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie.

These ancient aliens survive on Earth by wearing the bodies of humans, making their invasion all the more menacing. This constructed world and the mythology put into Black Site was unnecessary, but impressive – the movie might actually be more digestible as a book. The film hops around between present day and the latter 20th century via flashbacks, and there are, unfortunately, many-a expositional monologue explaining the saga of past events, the facility, etc. The history could have been more captivating if told via a flashback rather than dialogue, but since I didn’t care about which side won since the morality of on both sides are skewed (and, after a while, I just wasn’t entertained anymore), I was happy for them to save time with lazy writing. Though the story is ho-hum, I did like the writing for some of the dialogue – the film is full of snarky and snappy one-liners, especially from the badass women filling the ranks of this film’s small cast: Lauren Ashley Carter starring as the vengeful Agent Reid, Sophia Del Pizzo as “Danforth” the leader of the ninja-like fighters could have been way more tough but had good lines all the same, and Angela Dixon as the bitchy facilities director, Jennifer Wilkinson. In this same line of thinking, it was nice to see women fit seamlessly in these military roles and the men filling the more sidekick-y roles. With the recent successes of Arrival (2016) and Annihilation (2018) giving women the hero spotlight, I suspect there will be more movies falling in formation, only Black Site will be a banal and bland addition to this feminine feast.

Before man, there were elder gods using magic, and mankind pushed them into another dimension locking them away for eternity, only, they found a way back. On paper, the narrative seems like it could be epic, but Black Site turns out to be an over-referencing hodgepodge of 80’s sci-fi and over-complicated lore. It is hard not to pick out the similarity in aesthetic, sound mixing, and music to the recent Netflix hit show Stranger Things, only this movie was devoid of the heart and fondness of a bygone time, set in modern-day…U.S.? Britain? I could not really tell with the intermixing of accents (or attempts at them).