Black Mountain Side (2016)

I read the other reviews before I decided to download it from iTunes and watch.Some reviewers referenced Carpenter's 'Thing' and others referenced Lovecraft. I would step back from either. It takes place in an arctic setting, but that alone does not make it a Carpenter clone or even a bad one.A bunch of guys at an isolated northern archaeologic site dig-up/uncover something older than known recorded history...then strange behaviors and strange things start plaguing them.That's the beginning nut...and anyone who's an aficionado of Horror can guess the likely paths the story plot will take...The question becomes: What do you expect of the movie? I like this effort because it was about Dread and Uncertainty, Fear and Insanity. It's not a splatter or scream fest. Nor is it an out-and-out Monster flick, but there's 'SOMETHING' there. Something creepy that's given a nice, though albeit, slow, buildup.Some reviewers called the acting 'wooden' and worse...but the same could have been said about the character set in the 'Thing'. These are a Bunch of Guys, voluntarily stuck up in the middle of No-Where in the Canadian Winter. Only Certain kinds of people volunteer for for these kinds of stints. They tend NOT to be emotional Divas or unstable psychopaths as Hollywood scripts like to set them out.What this story is about is what happens when a group of very stolid, work-focused guys are faced with something inexplicable and there's no outside help. And then things and psyches begin to unravel.What also made this story work from the Lovecraftian angle were the hints, facts and thoughts that were explicated in the dialogue...if you're willing to pay attention. But that said, do NOT expect a cinematic Lovecraftian Horror experience.And yes...to a degree, this was a Horror movie with a slight Lovecraftian tinge. And thus, the ending DID actually Fit. Because in Lovecraft's Universe...there are NO Good Endings. Man does NOT escape.I would not make this Movie a Saturday Night MAIN Event. But it's a good fit for a late, late Friday Night chiller before you go to bed.

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?

In remote northern Canada a team of archaeologists uncover a mysterious structure so old it threatens to rewrite human history and in turn unleash am ancient horror on themselves. This lo-fi Canadian indie is like something straight from a HP Lovecraft novel - scientists uncover hidden past- hidden past screws with scientists and it's not a bad thing. The setting is beautifully rendered as a remote and alien landscape and despite its low budget effects do a decent job in creating a very tense and hallucinatory atmosphere. There are flaws - some of the dialogue is very clunky as are some of the performances and the ending will irritate many but if you're a fan of lovecraftian horror who isn't expecting cgi monsters or big Hollywood production values then you'll enjoy this trip into the mountains.

Have to bucket this piece of try-hard garbage. Have to. Because it wasted an hour and 40 minutes of my time, and left me and my S.O. basically bored and depressed that we could have done something more fun with the evening.AFTER THE FILM STARTED OFF SO WELL! At around the half-hour mark, whoever the good writer was just departed, and left a bunch of fumbling, drug-soaked idiots to finish off. Except they never finish, this thing drags itself along like an animated severed limb for the remaining hour.It's so bad. It's so, so bad. And it's just amazingly so, because IT STARTED OFF SO WELL! No direction. No purpose. SHOCKING script errors where important elements get forgotten 2 seconds later. Attempts to imitate great stories like The Thing ('Who Goes There' by JW Campbell) - except it can't even do a decent homage because it's such a confused, slow moving, boring MESS! Worst kind of film. The kind that deserves punishment. Somebody should be made to pay for this. Because it STARTED OFF SO WELL, sucked us in, then turned on us. It soaked us in bile. It vomited over us. It urinated in our faces.Do not, EVER, watch this film. You will kick your TV screen in.YES, it REALLY IS that bad.- -- ---