Site 13 comes to digital platforms on July 28, 2023.
Synopsis
When Dr. Nathan Marsh wakes up in a mental institution from a 10-year catatonic state, he has to watch the tapes from his last expedition to learn what eldritch horrors he has unleashed on the world.
Review
Site 13 may have been completed in 2021 before picking up a host of awards on its indie film festival circuit, but the film is one that was essentially 17 years in the making. That is because the film uses improvised ‘found footage’ style material shot all the way back in 2003 by Tony Urban as a plot device – namely as a tape recording which essentially functions as flashback material for a present-day story featuring Dr. Nathan Marsh, played by co-writer and director Nathan Faudree.
The film opens with an introduction to Dr. Marsh, cleverly using the archival documentation footage of a planned expedition to introduce the viewer to various characters and set the tone and story of the film. Having recently awoken from a long-term period of unresponsiveness, Dr. Marsh must rewatch and recount the events of the past that caused his mental decline in order to prevent the actions of an unspeakable horror in the present. Site 13 deftly fuses two film segments from two disparate time periods into one movie that explores myth and madness spanning more than a decade and, in so doing, finds itself forming an inventive and unique spin on the found footage genre.
Faudree, coming from an acting background with an emphasis on Shakespearean performance, demonstrates a great ability to create tension and intrigue throughout. Interestingly, the character of Dr. Catherine Charter, who had been assigned to monitor and care for Marsh when he became catatonic, is played by Katie Gibson – who starred as Lady Macbeth alongside Faudree’s Macbeth in a 1930s organised crime adaptation of Shakespeare’s famous tragedy back in 2016. The efforts of Gibson and co-star Leila Dean, playing nun Sister Margaret, enhance a year of standout female performances in mainstream horror, wherein the likes of Evil Dead Rise, The Boogeyman and Infinity Pool spring to mind.
However, the influences extend far beyond the realms of Shakespeare. Lovecraftian tones of cosmic horror serve as the constant throughline, establishing and enacting a sense of dread, terror and anxiety that ramps up as the films builds to a fantastic finale. Further still, the flavours of the filmographies of horror icons such as Sam Raimi and John Carpenter, particularly their early works, are prevalent in both the style and substance of Site 13.
Faudree expertly navigates the limitations of his indie budget, pushing the narrative along with a fine balance of a character-driven screenplay, sound direction and an impressive central performance that in essence sees him portraying (at least) three strikingly different characters. Some aspects of the film even extend beyond its monetary constrictions, with some effective makeup and costumes and visceral visual effects, particularly those of the creature towards the end of the film. The person responsible for the impressive VFX is Christopher Steinberger, who also doubled as the Director of Photography and offers up some strikingly haunted visuals, illustrating an aptitude for dynamic and interesting shots that never shy away into convention but seek instead to break the mould.
Indie horror legend Alan Rowe Kelly was brought in to edit the feature and does a phenomenal job, not only at handling the two simultaneous narratives but also at injecting an unnerving and unusual quality to the footage itself through the way in which shots are spliced together and the utilisation of visual glitches that contribute to the atmosphere and tone of the film at large. This atmosphere is only augmented by the musical score of Tom Burns, producing a melancholic, poignant title theme in addition to some genuinely unsettling pieces.
Just as there is balance in the individual departments of the film, there is also a balance in the relative focus of each timeline. Indeed, the three years spent on writing the modern component that allowed such fine crafting of effectively two films into one stands as a unique and engaging approach to found footage horror and is truly testament to the innate filmmaking talent of Faudree, who is perfectly poised to move on to bigger things.
⭐⭐⭐.5
