Review by Jon Donnis
The last time I can recall seeing Michelle Monaghan in anything, was TV show Messiah, which sadly was cancelled after one season, well she is back now and leading the cast in new thriller Black Site.
Michelle Monaghan plays Abigail "Abby" Trent, she works as a CIA analyst. She recently lost her family to a terrorist attack in Istanbul, Turkey, and is still coming to terms with such a loss. Despite this she decides she needs to get back to work, so she can find out who was behind the attack.
Abby soon finds herself stationed at a secret underground black site facility that imprisons the worst criminals and the highest risk terrorists. Just before her new assignment is to begin, a special ops group bring in "Hatchet Meyers", played by Jason Clarke. He is notorious for the way he tortures and brutally murders his enemies, and Abby soon realises he is the one behind the attack that killed her husband and daughter.
Despite this being supposedly the best place to keep prisoners, Hatchet soon escapes, and starts killing everyone at the base, one by one. Throw in some moles working on the inside for Hatchet, and Abby will have a tough job surviving this one and trying to get revenge on the man who killed her family.
The film is slightly paint by numbers, and you will not find yourself seeing anything original here, with that said the film does seem to walk the line between your typical political thriller, and classic evil horror. With Hatchet being the guy methodically taking people out is gruesome fashion.
I am a fan of Michelle Monaghan, and I think she fits well as the strong badass woman lead in this, and Jason Clarke just kind of looks a bit evil anyway, so always happy to see him play the bad guy in a film.
Special mention also should go to Uli Latukefu who plays Captain David Palau, if you are a fan of Young Rock, you will instantly recognise Latukefu.
The Good
Strong protagonist and strong antagonist does help what is a weak script as you want the Abby character to succeed and Hatchet to fail.
The Bad
The script is not original, and a moderate budget stifles the creativity of some scenes.
Overall
This is a 90 minute thriller, which has its high points as well as low ones, I would say there are more high than low, and I would say at 90 minutes it is an easy film to watch.
I score Black Site a fair 7/10
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