User reviews

First off, this is a very formulaic set up. That is not a bad thing, when I want an action movie, I want the action movie formula; when I want a horror movie, I want the horror movie formula. Black Rock follows the horror/survival/thriller genre of movie to the tee. Fine.

There are skinny unarmed women, who meet ex military armed soldiers and without giving away any 'twist', things get bloody quickly. The characters are roughly sketched with some solid acting, but we never really get to know or care about the characters. No problem, not what we are here for.

Where the movie falls apart is two fold: First, the best part about the movie should the Black Rock Island, a small (how small?) island with waters too cold to swim in. It is a great idea for a terrifying setting. However, it is rarely used to any effect. What makes the setting worse is the characters can both hid for a day, yet be almost on top of each other at the same time. At points the island seems to be miles long covered with dense forest, and at other points characters are hoping from one side to the other in a couple steps. This is confusing and a missed opportunity.

Second, when good horror/thriller movies set up the conflict, it almost always the strong terrorizing the weak, but the weak figure out some trick to save themselves. We as the audience need to believe that they can succeed, or be able to imagine that we could come up with a plan to survive. Unfortunately, this movie puts Labron James and (pre ankle) Kobe Bryant in a 2 on 2 basketball game with two 12 year old girls in wheel chairs. We as an audience need to believe our two heroines in wheel chairs have a chance, but we can't. The odds are so stacked against them that if they lose we are bored and if they win it is unbelievable. That is true of this movie as well. We are bored seeing boots crush ants and roll our eyes and almost laugh when that tears the booted leg off at the knee.

A long analogy, but the problem is that it is only through total incompetence and baffunery of the antagonists that the heroes don't just die 20 minutes into the movie.

Once you get past these two rather large disappointments there are other hard to overcome plot holes, like the sniper who can take out a moving target in the dark from atop a cliff with a head shot one minute then barley knows which end of his gun the bullets come out of the rest of the movie.

There is also a rather odd nude scene part way through that neither makes sense logically or in the story. The point of this still escapes me, but it was at least the only interesting character progression of the film.

All in all, it is a laboured film. It is too bad, because I looked forward to this film and was excited about the premise. The parts are there, but so much more could have been done with it. Characters flushed out, plot holes filled, more time taken with the mood and setting. Unfortunately, this Black Rock should sit in the bottom of the lake where no one can find it.

Three girls decide to go away for a weekend to an island known as Black Rock they visited as children. Once there, they meet three soldiers on a hunting expedition who have been discharged dishonourably from the army...

Black Rock for the most has decent enough acting, and I was drawn to it by a review on one of the horror podcasts I listen to. On there it was described as "a movie you wouldn't want to watch on a Sunday morning with a cup of tea" which of course was the time I chose then to watch it.

Sadly, there's little here that would offend a parish vicar. It's a plot by numbers excursion of girls attacked, girls fight back. And while I wouldn't say it was totally boring, there was little in the way of tension, gore, or thrills watching it. When it comes to "horror" these days (years?) you really have to look to Europe for anything of substance, and it seems ironic that somewhere like mild and cultured France can spit out horror which would give your grandma a heart attack while America gives us something like this PG fare.

Black Rock is really only recommended then if you have 90mins to kill and can't find anything better.

I went into this with no expectations and Black Rock is a decent little Indie thriller with some good suspense-filled moments. The story revolves around three long-time friends, two of whom are feuding who camp out on their old stomping ground of Black Rock to reconnect only their party is interrupted by three men who we learn have been dishonorable discharged from the army and aren't exactly friendly.

All hell breaks loose and the three heroines are hunted down. It's nothing we haven't seen before but the poor reviews are surprisingly poor for what seemed like a decent little movie. It has its flaws but character and the suspense are both there and the ladies Aselton(Abby) who also happens to be the director gave it a solid effort. Lake Bell (Lou) with and Kate Bosworth their roles exceptionally well for this story which never goes too over the top and stays believable for the most part.

It won't be winning any major awards but in my books it was a good survival story which had me interested all the way to the end.

6/10 (though rated 7 because it was better than people say it is)

Great actresses, but a very weak script. Maybe the script sounded good, I can't say, but the end product isn't good at all, which is a shame. Cardboard characters with "problems" and issues that are apparent from the first minute. Which might leave the viewer wondering why and how this could come this far.

It tries to defend it's positions on the issues at hand, but the movie never really succeeds. And don't get me started on that incredible (in all the wrong senses) ending! The something goes wrong scenario isn't new either, so you might not care about the believability of it all. If you care just a little though ... Well, you've been warned. A shame, but logic never entered in this ...

Sarah (Kate Bosworth) travels with her friend Lou (Lake Bell) to spend the weekend camping in the remote Black Rock Island that was part of their childhood. When they arrive to get their motor boat, Lou sees Abby (Katie Aselton) waiting for Sarah and they decide to give up traveling to the island. Lou and Abby were friends in the past but after an incident with Abby's boyfriends, they have been estranged for many years and do not talk to each other. However, Sarah convinces them to travel with her to Black Rock.

When they are resolving their issues, they meet their former schoolmate Henry (Will Bouvier) that is hunting with his friends from the army Derek (Jay Paulson) and Alex (Anslem Richardson) that worship Henry and Abby invites them to have dinner and drink with them on the beach. Abby gets drunk and she flirts with Henry and he makes a move on her. There is a tragic accident with Henry and his friends decide to revenge him.

"Black Rock" is a movie with a collection of clichés and a history based on moronic decisions. The plot is OK with Sarah trying to make up the situation between Abby and Lou and then the girls inviting Henry and his friends to recall the old times at school. However, Abby's inappropriate behavior and comments, despite she is drunk or not, does not make sense since the guys are strangers and ruins the story. The decision of the deranged Derek and Alex of killing the girls can be accepted, but the two clumsy guys armed with rifles being defeated by unarmed girls, missing or failing the shots is an absurd cliché. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Terror na Ilha" ("Terror in the Island")

This movie plays like a bad joke. It suffers from horrendous pacing, lack of plot twists, sub par acting villains and bad script. Summarized in one word: Boring. It lacked charisma and spirit from the main characters and at one point I was laughing my ass off at the movie, and its not supposed to be funny.

The bad guys are like a bad joke, the main characters are like a bad dream and the screenplay is like a little kid playing with old toys absentmindedly.

The producers could have donated the budget to art schools instead of producing this joke of a movie. Please find something else to do instead of wasting precious time to see this film.

This is the story of three women that were once really close friends that decide to get together on a remote island in Maine to reconnect. Very swiftly their idyllic trip falls apart when they run into some men with nefarious intentions. The women must come together like never before to survive and outwit their hunters.

This is not a great movie, but it is definitely good. As other reviewers pointed out, it is formulaic, but aren't 95% of the movies out there? The three lead actresses do a great job and there are some legitimate tense moments.This is a great movie for you to shut down your brain and go on a thrill ride.

First off, I have to say that I was genuinely excited to see this film. The synopsis for the film, and the overall idea sounded like it could be a promising addition to the thriller genre. Instead, I walked out of the film feeling underwhelmed and, ultimately, cheated. The film holds a runtime of a little below an hour and thirty minutes and, dear Lord do you feel every pain staking minute. The characters are wildly under developed and lucid, especially Kate Bosworth's character. While the film should focus on the girl's relationships with one another, it doesn't...it doesn't even come close to touching it. Instead, it goes right into introducing the evil male characters without ever developing any sentimental feelings for any of the three main girls played by Lake Bell, Kate Bosworth and Katie Aselton (the director). Forgive me for the lack of information of these characters, it is only due to the fact that each of them are so uninteresting and depraved that I can't even remember who was who. The direction and writing on this film is vastly inept, taking what should be breath taking scenes and molding them into scenes of ultra violence and shock that never materializes to be nothing less than terrible. The cast is trying their best to make this female rip off of Deliverence work, but ultimately it comes down to the direction of Katie Aselton that makes this film nothing more than a made for TV movie on Lifetime. Lake Bell tries to put the scream queen crown on but, yet again, it is bogged down by terrible direction and even worse, a horrible script from Mark Duplass. Overall, the film is stupid, undercooked, over acted, and under directed. This is a student film with Hollywood talent, which makes it an especially grueling experience and the worst film of 2013 thus far.

"What happened was an accident. Abby is sorry." Three friends set out for a getaway weekend on an island they used to frequent when they were younger. While they are talking they are surprised when three men who have been hunting show up at their camp site. The two groups begin talking and drinking. When a fatal accident happens the girls relaxing weekend turns into a fight for survival. There are movies that are made that you have to really pay attention to and make you think. While this is very entertaining this is not one of those kind of movies. The movie is really nothing that deep but I did enjoy it. Be prepared for it though, some parts are very gory and a little hard to watch. On the other hand this is a "girl power" type movie so it does have that going for it. If you like movies like the Perfect Getaway then you will like this one as well. It was entertaining and a good watch but nothing that will keep you talking or thinking. Overall, fun and exciting but nothing that original. I liked it though. I give it a B.

This film seems to be a rip-off of the British movie THE HIKE, which came out a year earlier and has pretty much exactly the same storyline (although the unfolding action is different, obviously). This is slim, independent film-making with a small cast and smaller budget. Three girls decide to go out into the wilderness for a camping trip, only to meet a trio of ex-soldiers, and things unfold from there.

I disliked this film from the opening scenes, and that's down to the script. The dialogue given to the main characters is puerile and you end up hating them from the outset. What's with that one girl pretending she had cancer in order to emotionally blackmail the others? It's pretty sick and you lose all respect for that character despite the best efforts of the actress playing her.

The story that unfolds is very predictable, with tons of these "survival horror" type films having been made in recent years. You don't care about the predicament of the leads and everything that happens feels stale and too well telegraphed in advance. I burst out laughing at the gratuitous nude scene and at the artifice of the ending where you can easily guess what happens. Non-existent acting, a horrid script, and unlikeable characters sink this from the outset.

Kate Aselton's Black Rock concerns three girls who venture out into what they believe is a deserted, peaceful island encompassed by woods and unrefined nature until they run into three war veterans who are spending their time out in the countryside hunting and living off the land. The girls invite them to their camp for longnecks and food, when one tries to rape and attack one of the girls. This leads to turmoil and tension between the three girls and vets, who are now playing a cat and mouse game with each other in an unfamiliar turf.

The girls are Abby (played by director Kate Aselton), Lou (Lake Bell), and Sarah (Kate Bosworth). Lou and Abby haven't spoken in months after a cheating incident left them what appeared to be irreparably broken and hurt. Sarah tries to be the glue that holds the three girls closer, claiming that they could die from unexpected circumstances tomorrow and they wouldn't have the luxury of "living," if that makes sense. As always, the planned outing turns deadly in a series of unforeseen events that will scar each of them for life.

If you go by the premise itself, it's undoubtedly so that Black Rock seems to accentuate and thrive off of every viable cliché in the suspense/thriller booklet. However, the film maintains careful plotting and a focused mindset, making its female characters more than the kind to cry and scream. One of the smartest things it does is avoid misogyny and dreary cynicism. It doesn't capitalize off of the known-effect its scene of brutality and assault will inevitably have on a viewer. It doesn't bask in the nihilistic light that films like I Spit on Your Grave have. It seems to function with the style and format that Wes Craven's classic Last House on the Left had. There was a film that took the most mean-spirited, vile plot and turned it into something of a subversive art, if you will, leaving misogyny at the door, while still amplifying the sickness of the situation.

Black Rock, though, is even more careful than that film. It doesn't conduct itself as a parable on revenge and brutality, or make an attempt to soften the violence that is featured in the film. Aselton is smart about what she shows and what she makes the film touch on more. The on-location shooting in Maine, showing the untouched wilderness and woodsy environment is terrific, the crackling of twigs and leaves brilliantly makes use of the naturalism this story begs for, and the wide-variety of camera angles and shot-setups make this as interesting as can possibly be aesthetically. The film surprisingly doesn't even feel like a film that tries to push the idea that women can be as tough as men or possess the unsung ability to fight back. This is a tale of survival and gender roles and commonalities seem to have no business being talked about here.

The film was written (or perhaps outlined) by Mark Duplass (Aselton's husband), who I've stated several times is one of my favorite men in the business. Duplass, usually working alongside his brother Jay, has created some of the strongest independent films of recent years and written some of the most unique and intimate films I've ever seen. Many of these films go under the name of a cinematic movement called "mumblecore," which is predicated off of amateurish performances, low-quality cameras, home-movie-esque aesthetics, and improvised scripts. Duplass's minimalist writing and story put with Aselton's reserved but competent direction makes the film that much more grand in terms of content.

Black Rock will be slammed by those who deem its survivalist story and "less-is-more" filmmaking as an amateur setback and a noneventful occurrence. It will be praised by those who adore small-scale storytelling and extremely independent filmmaking. You may think it's stupid and boring. I think it's one of the best films of the year.

Starring: Kate Aselton, Lake Bell, and Kate Bosworth. Directed by: Kate Aselton

Three women around the age of 30 partake of a reunion vacation to a Maine island where they hanged out when they were girls and had a fort. Sarah (Kate Bosworth) masterminds the event with the hope of reconciling the estranged Abby (Katie Aselton) and Lou (Lake Bell). The camping trip starts well enough, but things go awry and it turns into a survival situation.

"Black Rock" (2012) is a life-or-death backwoods drama/adventure/horror in the tradition of "Deliverance" (1972), "The Edge" (1997), "Nightmare at Bittercreek" (1988) and "Backcountry" (2014). While it lacks the budget of the first two, it's at least as good as the latter two.

These types of flicks are about being backed into a corner in the wilderness and finding your instincts to survive at all costs, including your primitive rage to kill if necessary. This one's totally realistic and very well done, not to mention pleasantly streamlined.

The film runs 1 hour, 20 minutes, and was shot around Milbridge, Maine.

GRADE: B+

This movie is about 3 girls who were friends growing up, get together and go to an isolated island. You'd think they'd spend time catching up but almost immediately meet up with.....yup, 3 guys. Who turn out to be not so friendly. Quickly it turns into an all out girl vs guy fight for survival. And to get back off island alive. All the characters are poorly developed and seem so dry and unbelievable. The storyline is predictable and slow. Maybe even tedious. It's a shame because the story sounded good and had a decent cover. This movie had great potential that was not realized. It's a shame more time wasn't spent on this movie.

Worst and most unrealistic and dumb movie ever. Dishonorably discharged soldiers are not allowed to own, buy or posess a gun. Made our veterans look like crazy psychos and yes it was all that girls fault for throwing herself at the dude . Made females look stupid too.

Kate Bosworth plays Sarah, who deceives her two best friends, Lou and Abby, played by Lake Bell and Katie Aselton, into going on a camping trip on an remote island where they used to spend their summers together as children. After some hesitation, Lou and Abby decide to put their personal issues with one another aside to make Sarah happy and camp for the weekend. During some drinking around a fire on the beach, the three women find themselves in the company of three hunters, one of which a drunken Abby decides to flirt with. The consequences of her behavior leads to murder and a terrifying fight for survival.

Black Rock is based on a story and directed by Katie Aselton. The screenplay is written by her husband, Mark Duplass. The Duplass Brothers became a beloved name through the film festival circuit that spread into Hollywood. Considered indie film heroes, they have written and directed The Puffy Chair, Baghead, Cyrus, Jeff Who Lives At Home as well as executive produced the indie hit of 2012, Safety Not Guaranteed, which Mark starred in as well. It was their first film, The Puffy Chair, that introduced us to Mark and Katie, who stole our hearts as a lovable modern couple. Off the big screen both Mark and Katie star in the television series, The League.

Black Rock is at the same time a dramatic thriller and a survival horror with enough shocks, blood and tension to turn away many lovers of both Katie and Mark's previous work. This has lead to negativity towards the film. This is unfortunate because Black Rock very clearly states it is a horror/thriller yet it seems that either these certain audiences and critics didn't bother to take note of the genre or were hoping it to somehow miraculously become something more light-hearted.

Black Rock is not as audience friendly as previous films by the filmmakers associated with the film and for a horror/thriller, it shouldn't be. The story stays quite believable which is rarely achieved in this genre, the characters and dialogue are well-written, the performances are as good as they can be and Katie Aselton shows a lot of promise as a director.

I'm not sure what led to Black Rock's inception, but it seems that writer/director/star Katie Aselton found herself with a budget and whipped together a paper thin story of three girls and a fight for survival that was supposed to be "empowering" or whatnot but is just laughably uncomfortable and embarrassing.

So Kate Bosworth (remember her?) and Lake Bell are off to spend the weekend on a lonely New England island and bring their estranged friend with them. There is tension for a moment, but it goes away until they arrive at the island and start arguing about...men. Yup, because even a female writer cannot write depth or originality into this. You'll hear better dialogue in real life when listening to drunk girls arguing in the street.

Once on the island they encounter a trio of men who are obviously a bunch of awkward creeps and sit around the campfire with them. Katie Aselton (are their character names even important?) flirts with one of them in an uncomfortable, overbearing way, which makes even the dude himself feel weird. She lures him into the forest alone and invites sex, but then, for absolutely no reason other than to make more "plot" happen, decides she doesn't want him and caves his head in with a rock when he doesn't stop. It's like they are deliberately teasing us with a ludicrously exaggerated "no means no" scenario that we are supposed to still find justified. Believe wahmen and all that. This is such poor writing.

The girls are now hunted by the other two creeps and there's zero atmosphere, very little action, terrible photography, no sense of place or space, loads more cringeworthy dialogue, and even gratituous nudity when they have to take their clothes off after emerging from freezing water. And yes, they spend the next short while completely naked. In any other movie that would be considered completely inappropriate but since it's a female calling the shots behind the camera it's...not?

Black Rock, is cheap and flat, and look like sub-par TV waste. Even the tagline of "Hunt or Be Hunted" is agonizingly overdone and cliched, and it doesn't even apply to what occurs in this "movie". It's 79 minutes of untalented people trying to stretch geriatric tropes to feature length, ending with a "shocking" cut-to-black that is nothing more than a welcome relief for everyone desperate for it to be over.

Oh, and they have landing strips, btw.

Three childhood friends set aside their personal issues and reunite for a girls' weekend on a remote island off the coast of Maine. One wrong move turns their weekend getaway into a deadly fight for survival.

So, this film was directed by Katie Aselton ("The League"), based on a screenplay by her husband Mark Duplass (also "The League"), and also stars Aselton. This may not be the duo you would expect to make a thriller, but they work together in the genre exceptionally well.

Reviews have been mixed to negative, with people saying the women make poor choices in the film (as if horror characters do not usually make poor choices). The film is better than given credit for, with a decent amount of tension and some incredible dialogue. Whether scripted or ad libbed, the conversations come off as far more natural than the average film -- these could really be three friends on a trip.

This is the worst movie I've seen in a decade. Their high pitched voices. The screaming. Do not recommend his dud.

My first clue that this was not going to be a good film was after reviewing the credits to see Katie Aselton, was the writer, director and star of the film. Trust me, Katie Aselton is no Sylvester Stallone who pulled off a daily double by writing and starring in the Academy Award Best Bicture of 1976, Rocky. Heck even Sylvester had enough common sense to not try and direct himself in a feature film at such a young age.

I found the whole premise of the film (three childhood friends trying to relive their childhood fun days and put aside their differences from their teenage days and boyfriend triangle love affairs) to be so predictable and oh so boring. Oh yes, and of course three army rejects just happen to be hunting for wildlife on the island and since they cannot find any animals they decide to hunt the girls. Duhh!

Early in the film when the girls first land on Black Rock island they start to squabble, and I just cannot believe that Katie Aselton who was the main focus of this scene wouldn't use her directors chair to yell out "CUT". The squabbling went on for what seemed was an eternity. I found it so irritating. The three male companions who were army rejects had no chance to develop any character of their own, Director Katie just seemed to use their presence as the cliché good versus evil theme, and again I was kind of rooting that the guys would win so the women would just stop arguing amongst themselves. If you like a good wilderness adventure try and see Burt Reynolds in Deliverance. It is kind of the same premise, which is one group of people are the hunters, and the other group are the hunted.

I found no value, no character development in this film and certainly no suspense was evident. I gave it a 1 out of 10 and suggest you pass on this boring and self serving Katie Aselton writer, director, actor not even good enough for a made for TV movie.