THE FACILITY

The Facility

Director: Ian Clarke
Screenplay: Ian Clarke
Starring: Aneurin Barnard, Alex Reid

There are two easy mistakes to make with “The Facility”. First off, it’s not “The Faculty” (The Robert Rodríguez sci-fi film with body-snatchers). Secondly, it stars Alex Reid. That’s Alex Reid: the attractive Cornish actress from “The Descent” movies and “Arachnid”. NOT Alex Reid: the cage-fighting, cross-dressing, Jordan-baiting winner of UK Celebrity Big Brother. I mean, what must her life be like?! The name’s spelt exactly the same!

Moving on … “The Facility” is a low-budget British movie that was previously known as “Guinea Pigs”. It’s probably a good move to have the name change, as a drunken order on Amazon could have you ending up with the infamous Japanese gore films, and watching a mermaid decompose or something…  Produced by Vertigo films, who are probably better known for their gritty crime dramas, such as “Pusher” and “Bronson”, but they did also produce the acclaimed “Monsters”. This is the first full-length feature film to be directed and written by Ian Clark, after a number of successful shorts.

The film starts as seven volunteers congregate at the Limebrook medical centre. This is a high-security facility (there’s the title!) far from civilization and deep in an English Countryside forest.  They are there to take part in a clinical trial for a new substance made by “ProSyntrex Pharmaceuticals”. Called “Pro9”, the volunteers will be injected with gradually increased doses of the drug over a period of two weeks, and all for the princely sum of two grand. The volunteers are an eclectic bunch and consist of students, hippy-chicks, alpha-males, and one grumpy old git called Morty (Steve Evets) who apparently makes a living out of these trials and has some juicy stories.  It doesn’t take two weeks for things to escalate though. Merely hours after the first dosage, one member of the group starts to succumb to unforeseen side-effects. Their skin flushes red, they have excruciating pain, and they start to exhibit hyper-violence. As this victim is isolated, things start to escalate further and get a whole lot worse. How the hell can the survivors escape from a locked down building in the middle of nowhere?

As per my (unfunny) sub-heading, this film really does have the basic feel of “28 Days Later”, albeit scaled down to a single location, a lower budget and without a fear of cross-infection (the victims have already been “infected” and can’t pass it on. They just kill people).

Where it works best, is in the quiet moments of menace and tension, as oppose to all-out rage attacks. And there are some great examples of these. For instance, we never see the first attack by the infected volunteer on staff at the medical centre. We just see the after math. A nurse silently running for her life as somebody watches in fear from a window. A Doctor quietly explains the situation to onlookers, as he bleeds profusely from a gory head wound, and then collapses. There are also other effective moments; A bulked up volunteer flexes menacingly in the background as a character walks past in blissful ignorance. Another volunteer gives himself a “splitting headache” whilst watched in horror by others on CCTV. The old chestnut of a dark room, being illuminated only by camera flash, gets another good outing as well. It speaks volumes that practically all of the film has no background music or soundtrack at all, which makes the gritty moments of violence more effective. In fact, the whole movie has that particularly low-key feel that British dramas seem to have. The cinematography is very “shaky-cam”, and most sequences are subtitled with the time and date, as the night continues. There’s even some prologue and epilogue text at the start/end of the film.

The cast all perform incredibly naturalistically and effectively, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a fair bit of improvisation going on. If I had to single out any of the cast, it would have to be Morty (Evets), Adam (Aneurin Barnard), and Joni (Alex Reid). Particularly as one of these has to act out the full onset of the drug’s effects in full view of the camera (*Non Spoiler Alert*: not saying who).

I would have marked the movie a little higher, but if truth be told it is a little too low-key to be a real major scare-contender. We spend a good twenty minutes or so following the volunteers as they get their shots and we explore their characters, much in the manner of a genuine NHS documentary. And despite the “28 Days Later” comparison, it never really turns into a full-blown “siege” movie. To be fair, there aren’t many logic gaps, but whilst it’s easy to accept the lack of mobile phones, cars, and the Internet, why does nobody simply leg it into the forest or set off one of the fire-alarms in plain sight? (Call me” Mr Picky”). And while the film is well-paced and never outstays its welcome, its running time still seems a little short.
There is a nice little plot “twist” towards the end that I felt was a bit reminiscent of “The Mist”. Can’t elaborate. Shush! (*makes Austin Powers be-quiet hands movement*)

All in all, this is another genuinely effective Brit horror. It’s not going to blow people away, but it is an effective fright flick, that achieves a lot with its low budget and high-level concept. I hope it does well on DVD, and I’ll be eagerly awaiting Clark’s next picture. You won’t regret a purchase if you’re interested. Just remember … it’s not THAT Alex Reid!

DVD Extras:
A 17 minute “making of” feature. Some interesting information into the genesis of the film, and the nature of clinical trials themselves.
Trailer + Teaser

Uniformly good performances and a plausible set-up make this a thoroughly watchable scare film. However, the overall substance and running time is very slight, and there are no real “surprises” in content.