Black Mountain Side

Watched.

Watched.

I had to register an account just to review Black Mountain Side and was appalled by the low rating as this is a very underappreciated movie. I'm a big fan of The Thing - it's one of my all time favorite movies. I did not have high hopes for Black Mountain Side, but approx. 20 minutes into it, I could feel it oozing vibes from The Thing. It is clear that it is this movies main source of inspiration. The cold and remote location, a team of scientists, the mysterious illnesses, an unknown enemy and the strong lack of faith in who you can trust - it all comes together to create a very atmospheric horror thriller that I will watch many times over.

Nice icy scenery and a slick visual style can't do much to elevate the fairly poor story. A group of archaeologists are dealing with a strange virus from an ancient site, while being harassed by a deep-voiced deer who tries to manipulate them, have them killed off one by one. The virus is only briefly discussed in detail, when we're told it turns cells to that of cephalopods. Which means the workers are being turned to octopussies. But that's just a dead end because nothing ever comes out of this plot-point. The viewer finally gets his hopes up when the last survivor talks back to the deer/octopus thingy, demanding answers. So why does the deer/octopus/alien thingy want them harm? In a rare sci-fi/horror moment, one of the victims asks the alien/monster this question, but unfortunately gets no answer. Instead, deer/octopus thingy cops out by giving some silly speech in which it implies that it is in fact God and would you be so kind as not to ask stupid questions. Very lazy, laughable writing. Set up a mystery but give the viewer almost nothing: that just doesn't cut it. Especially when the plot moves so slowly. A poor imitation of "Thing" - where things happen and the viewer isn't treated like a child. Predictably, everyone in the movie snuffs it. We don't know why, we don't know where the virus originates from, we don't know anything. And we don't know why they didn't film this in the found-footage style because everyone snuffs it. But I guess they would have struggled greatly to give all these characters an excuse to film what's going on. Not that found-footage films ever shy away from irrational explanations for the persistent filming.

An indie must be low budget which necessarily means small cast, small sets, and few special effects, but it doesn't have to mean a meandering script and a weak ending. The cheapest part of any movie is the script so there is never an excuse for a bad one. Cinematography and acting are good but there is no satisfying resolution. It feels like half a story, a few creepy random events cobbled together on the run with no convincing conclusion in mind. How could the crew spend months making this and not notice that?

Have you seen 'The Thing'? then don't go near this film. Do you value your time? Then don't go near this film. I tried so hard to find something positive about this... The snow was nice. A few things disturbed me about this and none of things were things the makers intended. There was 5 or 6 Archaologists on site along with 5 Native helpers, yet when the first 'exciting' event occurred and three of the Natives apparently fled, all work on the dig stopped...These guys were archaeologists, right? I don't see what was to stop them from rolling up their sleeves and continuing the dig. That is only one aspect of this film which makes little sense, the other aspects are the rest of the film. Why was it made? Who decided to attempt a rip off of 'The Thing'? and Why was it made? It all made very little sense and to be honest it didn't bother me because it really was just that bad. Just an awful film with a poor attempt at an ambiguous ending which came across like they'd literally run out of ideas and money.

I will keep this short. I'm a big fan of the original "The Thing". This film seems to borrow so many scenes and ideas from that film that its pretty shameless. The early scene of the main character on the radio, whilst playing games and drinking whiskey is truly awful, and far too close to Kurt Russell's classic opening scene in "The Thing". Furthermore the acting is so atrocious its beyond words. Everybody looks nervous to be on screen, one actor looks as if he cant bring himself to make eye contact with the other actors whilst relaying his lines. Ultimately nothing happens for the majority of the film, its so slow I nearly slipped into a coma. OK, its obviously on a very low budget, but Its so bad that its inexcusable. I was astounded when I saw this film for £12.99 at my local store, what a joke. The world doesn't need anymore films this bad...whoever is responsible please stop producing them.

Oh my f-cking days, this movie was incredible. Ok, yeah it's got a bit of a The Thing vibe, cold environment, isolation, don't know who to trust etc, that's where it ends though. I don't think I've seen a more original concept for a horror movie monster. The writing here is sooo detailed and you never feel like you're taken out of it from some dodgy one liner. The fear that's amassed here is subversive and creative. For ages I was like, yo, what's happening here, but it's all worth it. Only down side was that maybe it could of been paced better, like it kind of feels like it takes 40 minutes for things to really kick off, but when they do, they really do The ending might leave some viewers unfulfilled but I really fw it heavy. It was different but didn't take you out of the story Yeah, don't watch the rating on this one, 5.1 or whatever is waaayyyyy too low. I've given it a 9 to boost it up cos any real horror fan will definitely want to be deeping this one

Nice icy scenery and a slick visual style can't do much to elevate the fairly poor story. A group of archaeologists are dealing with a strange virus from an ancient site, while being harassed by a deep-voiced deer who tries to manipulate them, have them killed off one by one. The virus is only briefly discussed in detail, when we're told it turns cells to that of cephalopods. Which means the workers are being turned to octopussies. But that's just a dead end because nothing ever comes out of this plot-point. The viewer finally gets his hopes up when the last survivor talks back to the deer/octopus thingy, demanding answers. So why does the deer/octopus/alien thingy want them harm? In a rare sci-fi/horror moment, one of the victims asks the alien/monster this question, but unfortunately gets no answer. Instead, deer/octopus thingy cops out by giving some silly speech in which it implies that it is in fact God and would you be so kind as not to ask stupid questions. Very lazy, laughable writing. Set up a mystery but give the viewer almost nothing: that's just doesn't cut it. Especially when the plot moves so slowly. A poor imitation of "Thing" - where things happen and the viewer isn't treated like a child. Predictably, everyone in the movie snuffs it. We don't know why, we don't know where the virus originates from, we don't know anything. And we don't know why they didn't film this in the found-footage style because everyone snuffs it. But I guess they would have struggled greatly to give all these characters an excuse to film what's going on. Not that found-footage films ever shy away from irrational explanations for the persistent filming.

I was really disappointed in this one. It was full of strange and creepy situations, and pretty good acting. It seemed very promising and could have been really good. The choice of the main "bad" thing was baffling though and I can only assume they ran out of money in the budget. I normally don't offer suggestions on how to fix a movie, but I have just one for this movie. Instead of the bad guy being obviously a guy in a deer suit you picked up from a cheap Halloween store, you could have just even gone with a light, or no figure at all. The voice was creepy enough to carry the character. The hilarious deer suit sucked the creepy feel right out of the movie.