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.

THE FACILITY is another film about a medical trial gone wrong, in which a number of diverse characters are locked inside a medical research institute and tested with some new drugs which have unusual and unexpected side effects. This film has almost exactly the same story and execution as the American-made LAST EXPERIMENT, which was also disappointing.I think the problem with such films is that they feel very loosely-plotted and predictable. The viewer knows from the very beginning that things are going to go violently wrong so the first half of the story, the set up, is very boring as a result. This film has a cheapness of look that's not helped by the clichéd blue filter used in all of the scenes to make the setting look cold and clinical.Recognisable cast members are limited to Alex Reid (from THE DESCENT) and that's about it. The characters are thinly-drawn and quite unlikeable and that's even before the story gets going. And once things do kick off, they do so in a predictable way that remains predictable until the end. Sure, there's some gore and bloodshed here, but THE FACILITY is depressing more than anything else and certainly never horrific.

The Facility is about a group of people that are part of a drug trial. Unforeseen side effects make the first and only night of a 14 days trial mayhem.Yeah, the drug induced guinea pig crazy people thing has been done. Yeah, there's nothing that makes this movie stand out from anything. But..., the simple fact that it was so..., simple, made it believable. I've never been a part of one of those trials but I have been on drugs that cause those kind of psychotically, aggressive, homicidal, suicidal feelings. So I can kind of understand how something like that could happen. This didn't happen. This was just a directors attempt to cause spite for big business pharmaceuticals. Which he failed. Overall, the acting was decent, it was actually a decent little film. It was just too short. This movie had some good things going on. Some good suspense building/built up, then it just ends by the director saying, "No one at Prosyntrex was prosecuted." That was it. I really wanted to like it better, but the way it ended just made it seem like the director just ran out of ideas and said f*** it.

In summary, the acting was solid, the story was solid, and there was a lot of tension throughout. I am really surprised by the low rating for this movie. It is not a cheesy gore fest like a lot of movies out there. It uses the unknown and unseen which is often much more frightening. There are a lot of scenes where can only hear what is happening but that creates even more tension. You are along for the ride like the characters in the movie. They don't always see what is happening and you are left to wonder about the horrors of the unknown. Most of the characters are likable and you can feel sympathy for their plight. They don't fight and bicker constantly but spend most of their time trying to figure things out and survive. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and think anyone who prefers good writing to gore will also enjoy it.