17 years in the making, “Site 13” is a uniquely constructed found footage film that gets points for ingenuity — enough to forgive some flaws.
How are films made? Before the camera batteries are charged, and the Bluetooth microphones are paired up, how do people get together and construct a movie?
For some film enthusiasts like myself, the story behind the making of a movie is an integral part of the movie itself. One great example would be Spookies, the 80s video store Frankenstein-of-a-movie relic that melded together two very different sets of footage to make something akin to Evil Dead as told by Scooby Doo characters.
Releasing on July 28th to digital streaming is Site 13, another horror film crafted from two very different sets of footage.
This unique found footage film is a fusion of material shot over the course of 17 years and edited together to make one linear story.
Begun as a found footage film in 2003 under the direction of Tony Urban, the primarily improvised movie was filmed. But due to Urban’s retirement, it was shelved for thirteen years, doomed to haunt the abyss of discarded cinematic dreams.
The thought of Urban’s efforts being abandoned and forgotten disturbed writer/director/star Nathan Faudree greatly, and he brought it back from the dusty crypts. He received permission from Urban to pick up the torch and lead the film to its eventual completion.
With the help of a crowdfunding effort, Faudree created present-day portions of the film, shot within a week in Syracuse, using members of WatchWorks Studios, led by Chris Steinberger and Megan Piechowicz, and worked them into the flashbacks filmed by Urban to complete the story. Alan Rowe Kelly was hired as a producer/editor and used his unique storytelling experiences.
It took two days of filming and three years of post-production to blend the two films into a singularly creative experience, where two collections of footage became its own new cosmic horror tale.
Surprisingly, both parts fuse together quite seamlessly.
Though not specifically Lovecraftian, it indeed operates in a world on a collision course with a similar eldritch, Cthulhuesque doom.
Site 13 tells the story of Dr. Nathan Marsh, a theologian obsessed with circles, 26 geological anomalies spread throughout the world that offer gateways to other dimensions.
He wakes up in a mental institution after being in a catatonic state for ten years. Upon waking, the doctor has to watch the tapes from his last expedition to solve the mystery of his solitary cosmic horror. He quickly figures out, via the tapes, that his eldritch meddling has brought madness and a Sauron-like, giant, tentacled eyeball to unprepared humanity.
Nathan is not a very nice guy. He may be involved in one of the most significant discoveries in the infinite history of space, but he is very unsure of himself. He brings a few of his students along for his journey, including one who admittedly loves him — flattering attention he is very transparent about eating up.
Why do brilliant boundary-breakers and explorers have to be so selfish and narcissistic?
On top of that, he casually kills a dog in order to further his experiment, which instantaneously makes him unworthy of the flesh he’s poured into.
Most of the dialogue was improvised, which might not have been the best creative decision.
The actors tend to over-perform their lines, and unfortunately, they devolve into the standard found footage, “Where the fuck is he?”, “Shut the fuck up!”, “Where did she go?” and “Please come back!” kind of dialogue.
This is a trope that has become gradually more and more disagreeable. It’s doubtful that, in real life, people would simply fall apart like this — certainly not in every single situation.
Gore can usually assist in covering up shortcomings, but there really isn’t much gore here to speak of. Regardless of how much blood is in the movie, it shouldn’t be considered gore until bone and spongy chunks start flying around.
The film must be given points for accuracy, however. The title sequence has a very antiquated look, and it actually uses the symbol of Baphomet and a decent amount of art that can be found in The Necronomicon.
There is also a slight glimmer of philosophical hope in the bleak but not entirely nihilistic ending.
As with many movies, it could benefit from losing 10-20 minutes of running time.
There is a lot to nitpick with this valiant Lovecraftian effort, but the effort and inventiveness of the storytelling excuse most of that away. Given the creativity and tenacity it took to birth this passion project into the world, it definitely deserves to be discovered and enjoyed.
Overall Rating (Out of 5 Butterflies): 3.5
Follow Us!