SITE 13 (2023) Review
When Dr. Nathan Marsh wakes up in a mental institution from a 10-year catatonic state he must watch the tapes from his last expedition to learn what eldritch horrors he has unleashed on the world. Using found footage shot in 2003 as flashback material for a present-day story featuring a recurring character, SITE 13 crafts two films from two time periods into one movie that explores, myth, legacy, and madness over the course of more than a decade.
SITE 13 was filmed over the course of 17 years and is described by co-director/producer/star Nathan Faudree as ‘a Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror film that truly proves evil never dies.’ It began life as a found footage film in 2003 under the direction of Tony Urban, the mostly improvised movie was filmed and then due to Urban’s retirement, shelved.
Flash forward 13 years and Faudree was still haunted by the work that everyone had done for the film. He contacted Tony with an interesting idea and suggested that he write and film a present-day portion of the movie and use the old footage as a kind of flashback material. Urban quickly agreed and was more than happy to give the film a new life. Faudree then set about crafting a script that incorporated the footage into a present-day story.
The result makes for an interesting if flawed flick that has elements of PRINCE OF DARKNESS, EVENT HORIZON and the EVIL DEAD movies in the mix. The dialogue veers towards repeating ‘He’s coming’, ‘He’s already here’ and ‘He’s in the world’, which can become a bit wearing, but when it does work it pays off splendidly. The score has a nice Carpenter-synth vibe thing going on, the performances are fine and it held enough going on to invest enough interest to see where it was heading.
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