The Ascent is not what I thought it would be (and when a film has three titles, it is seldom a good omen of quality). I assumed it would be some mysterious staircase encountered on a mission by our intrepid special ops group, but it just turns out to be an officeblock. Saves on sets, I guess. We also get to see earlier scenes replayed many times, which is a treat. Also, the Eastern European country where the special ops action tales place is strangely blue (perhaps everyone involved was a big Eiffel 65 fan?). So, is watching a group of characters wandering up stairs, while periodically stopping for existential chats and the odd pointless fight while trying to keep apace of a demonic force while rave-style lights keep a-flashing exciting? Well, I'd rather be stuck in a timeloop endlessly watching a Shayne Ward concert than watch this film again.
37 Reviews
"I've got a bad feeling about this." After 20 minutes, so did I
By-TorX-126 October 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Not a 10, but not a 1 either
adrenachrome14 June 2020
Warning: Spoilers
In the vein of "Groundhog Day", "Edge of Tomorrow" (aka Live, Die, Repeat), "R Point" and a few others, comes a story of consequences of action.
There is a team of Mercenaries who are given a set of orders, which includes ensuring no one in the enemy camp is left alive. Unfortunately this includes a woman, who we later find out is a witch of some sort, once she is killed, the cycle of action/reaction/action starts.
While this is good in theory, you have to have a solid cast of writers to give the cast something to build on, and in this case you don't. Not completely anyway.
I like what the writer/director was trying to do, but it felt too long, with too many decisions of the actors (a fault squarely laid at the feet of the writer) lacking in common sense, especially for a military squad, who should know better.
All the same, once the team starts figuring out what is happening to them, things move at a good pace toward a pretty realistic ending.
A solid effort by a director still trying to find his style. I'll give it a 5 out of 10.
There is a team of Mercenaries who are given a set of orders, which includes ensuring no one in the enemy camp is left alive. Unfortunately this includes a woman, who we later find out is a witch of some sort, once she is killed, the cycle of action/reaction/action starts.
While this is good in theory, you have to have a solid cast of writers to give the cast something to build on, and in this case you don't. Not completely anyway.
I like what the writer/director was trying to do, but it felt too long, with too many decisions of the actors (a fault squarely laid at the feet of the writer) lacking in common sense, especially for a military squad, who should know better.
All the same, once the team starts figuring out what is happening to them, things move at a good pace toward a pretty realistic ending.
A solid effort by a director still trying to find his style. I'll give it a 5 out of 10.
Stairway to Leaden
ofumalow10 June 2020
This is sort of like "Cube" in a stairwell, in that the trapped, desperate protagonists keep moving yep can't escape being in endless repetitions of the same purgatorial environment and situations. Only "Cube" had striking design elements (and deaths), whereas this has...one dull institutional stairwell, with arbitrarily colored lighting at times, for most of 100 minutes.
You're very aware that this is a tricked-up way of making a genre film with extremely limited locations and effects (which encompasses actual repetitions of scenes), but for that to work, the tricks themselves have to be original and compalling. They're not, so you can never forget it's a very low-budget movie trying to cover that fact with leaps of imagination that in fact aren't very imaginative, let alone suspenseful or intriguing. Even the notion of repeatedly trying to revise recent history a la "Edge of Tomorrow" is dully worked out, using repetition as a narrative gimmick to ends that are tedious rather than ingenious. The horror content, such as it is, is really pedestrian. Nor are the characters interesting, as they're all humorless paramilitary types, which some of the actors are hardly convincing as. Needless to say, an eventual anti-war message kinda sinks into the general quicksand of dreariness here; the movie doesn't have even the minimum depth for it to have any impact.
You've seen worse. But under any of its three titles so far, this is the kind of movie that just kills time rather than filling it with any genuine suspense or excitement, despite much running around and shooting/stabbing/etc. each other. At no point are you particularly glad you've stuck with it. Nothing crucial would have been lost had it been trimmed by half an hour...or any amount, really.
You're very aware that this is a tricked-up way of making a genre film with extremely limited locations and effects (which encompasses actual repetitions of scenes), but for that to work, the tricks themselves have to be original and compalling. They're not, so you can never forget it's a very low-budget movie trying to cover that fact with leaps of imagination that in fact aren't very imaginative, let alone suspenseful or intriguing. Even the notion of repeatedly trying to revise recent history a la "Edge of Tomorrow" is dully worked out, using repetition as a narrative gimmick to ends that are tedious rather than ingenious. The horror content, such as it is, is really pedestrian. Nor are the characters interesting, as they're all humorless paramilitary types, which some of the actors are hardly convincing as. Needless to say, an eventual anti-war message kinda sinks into the general quicksand of dreariness here; the movie doesn't have even the minimum depth for it to have any impact.
You've seen worse. But under any of its three titles so far, this is the kind of movie that just kills time rather than filling it with any genuine suspense or excitement, despite much running around and shooting/stabbing/etc. each other. At no point are you particularly glad you've stuck with it. Nothing crucial would have been lost had it been trimmed by half an hour...or any amount, really.
I enjoyed the advert breaks
stuart-jstanford15 December 2020
5.8!?!?!!
mvike13 July 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I'm a huge horror fan, if you are as well...you're aware that anything with a 5.0+ is going to typically be very worth watching as people rate them low.
This however...? How this is above a 1.5 is blowing my mind.
Absolutely horrible acting, horrible CGI, horrible pacing, and just plain DUMB.
I give it 2 stars because like most of you likely thought...when I heard the plot I went "that sounds really neat!!" As I'm always interested to see how film makers can take a simple, mundane idea and make it fun. Isolation films are my favorite...so being trapped on never ending stairs..? What could go wrong!? Well all of it...
First of all...the number 1 thing I'd do as a film maker is, hide your weaknesses. How would you do that here? Well your budget was clearly that of an unsuccessful yard sale. Why would you have big explosions, and why have them be a military unit!? They could've done it with a group of friends...a group of bank robbers ...you get the idea. They could've hidden the fact that it's straight out of a Friday night SyFy channel film.
The kills were ...not great.the monster or ghost or whatever it is was bad.
Just pass..
This however...? How this is above a 1.5 is blowing my mind.
Absolutely horrible acting, horrible CGI, horrible pacing, and just plain DUMB.
I give it 2 stars because like most of you likely thought...when I heard the plot I went "that sounds really neat!!" As I'm always interested to see how film makers can take a simple, mundane idea and make it fun. Isolation films are my favorite...so being trapped on never ending stairs..? What could go wrong!? Well all of it...
First of all...the number 1 thing I'd do as a film maker is, hide your weaknesses. How would you do that here? Well your budget was clearly that of an unsuccessful yard sale. Why would you have big explosions, and why have them be a military unit!? They could've done it with a group of friends...a group of bank robbers ...you get the idea. They could've hidden the fact that it's straight out of a Friday night SyFy channel film.
The kills were ...not great.the monster or ghost or whatever it is was bad.
Just pass..
Barely bearable. Only watch if you have to.
aklintimur28 June 2020
Warning: Spoilers
A cross maze in a stairwell mimicking the "Cube" and "The Platform" effect, a never ending nightmare on repeat. Soldiers are stuck inside the stairwell and it seems like they're looping and aren't moving anywhere.
The way the stairwell look, very plain and boring. Classic industrial building.
Acting was horrible. Unpleasing. Cinematography looked very lazy and weak. The devilish/demonic/haunting personality that's haunting them looks very silly, always staring up the stares at them with that awful red 'emergency' colors and barely-eerie demonic grunts.
Notable mentions: The movie has some of the worst color grading (Blue Tint for 50-60% of the movie, if not more. So unpleasing.)
The way the stairwell look, very plain and boring. Classic industrial building.
Acting was horrible. Unpleasing. Cinematography looked very lazy and weak. The devilish/demonic/haunting personality that's haunting them looks very silly, always staring up the stares at them with that awful red 'emergency' colors and barely-eerie demonic grunts.
Notable mentions: The movie has some of the worst color grading (Blue Tint for 50-60% of the movie, if not more. So unpleasing.)
Looked like it was going somewhere then didn't
rimj-4518212 May 2020
Warning: Spoilers
In the first 5mins you will have sussed the whole film....don't bother. For a moment you will think "surely there is a twist".....and you would be wrong. Remember Cube? Not much of a budget, but managed to get the max out of it.....this is nothing like Cube.....this is a total waste of time
A Creative Military Horror Film
mochteam12 November 2021
Black Ops is a low budget horror flick. But it has a unique plot of solider trapped in limbo by the ghost of an innocent they murdered. They're force to relive their decisions over and over again until they get it right and there are consequences each time they fail their attempts. I found the plot to be unique but it did feel like the movie was longer than it needed to be by 20 minutes.
I found this movie to be a horror treat I stumbled upon as there really aren't many military themed horror movies (at least not ones for modern armed forces). I do enjoy military themed horror movies because they're always unique and creative. This movie is no different in that department.
As a horror fan when I watch a movie there's certain things I omit and that's the expectation of high end effects or Oscar winning actors. What I look for is a solid story and well acted execution of that story.
This film delivers that for me. Some might watch the film and pick it apart for the glamour and glitz it lacks but you'll never be able to enjoy any horror movie with that mindset. You've got to approach low budget horror movies with an open mind as low budget movies tend to always the best plot ideas.
I found this movie to be a horror treat I stumbled upon as there really aren't many military themed horror movies (at least not ones for modern armed forces). I do enjoy military themed horror movies because they're always unique and creative. This movie is no different in that department.
As a horror fan when I watch a movie there's certain things I omit and that's the expectation of high end effects or Oscar winning actors. What I look for is a solid story and well acted execution of that story.
This film delivers that for me. Some might watch the film and pick it apart for the glamour and glitz it lacks but you'll never be able to enjoy any horror movie with that mindset. You've got to approach low budget horror movies with an open mind as low budget movies tend to always the best plot ideas.
AKA Awful
helenrdavidj24 October 2020
This film is distributed under several names; 'The Ascent' AKA 'Stairs' AKA 'Black Ops'. Probably done so the unweary accidentally watch this God awful film twice. A psychological drama that certainly plays with the mind. It certainly disturbed mine.😒
actually decent
queenofdiamonds-2409017 May 2021
Horror & Time Loops
Pairic24 October 2020
The Ascent (AKA Black Ops): A special ops mercenary squad are in the midst of a civil war, their mission is to retrieve intel but they encounter a strange prisoner. It's pretty savage, prisoners are being massacred by the civil war combatants and the team leader wants no complications. The team return to HQ in England and that's when things start going weird. The lifts are broken so they take the stars. But these stairs seem never ending, an explosion occurs, alarms go off, red lights flash. Then some thing starts to pick them off. Time loops where they try to change the past. A figure pulling a mercenary over a railing, horror on the stairs. But the real horror is their own actions and those of others in reiterations of the civil war events. A bit overlong at 102 minutes, a tighter horror thriller would have resulted from a 90 minute running time. It's a good story though and while it is quite violent, much of the horror is psychological. Written & Directed by Tom Paton (Redwood). On the Horror Channel. 7/10.
Just.... don't.
julietnice22 June 2020
There are some really excellent British films out there. This is not one of them. I realise it must be hard to make a whole film from an idea, but surely at some point you would step back and say, 'Actually, these people are b**** awful actors.'? Or someone points out that the dialogue is terrible?
I'm a big fan of the never-ending staircase theme. Not of this film though.
Distinctly Average
flook7517 June 2020
Very average film that could have been executed better.
The interesting storyline which could have been explored in more depth leaves you underwhelmed.
You can see the film has a tiny budget and with this the action sequences dont have the desired effect.
Go elsewhere for similar Groundhog Day style films. Happy Death Day or Edge of Tomorrow spring to mind
The interesting storyline which could have been explored in more depth leaves you underwhelmed.
You can see the film has a tiny budget and with this the action sequences dont have the desired effect.
Go elsewhere for similar Groundhog Day style films. Happy Death Day or Edge of Tomorrow spring to mind
An interesting premise completely wasted
continuumx24 February 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Just from the title, you might think this is a generic Segeal-esque action movie where black special ops forces characters fight Russian terrorist cartel mafia or whatever. It does open like one of those movies. It opens with some people at a military (?) camp somewhere in a war or something. There's a vague mention of rebels later so I guess that's who they are. The main characters show up and kill them all. They're black special forces ops or something. Special Boat Air Reconnaissance Group Service. They are supposed to retrieve unspecific intel which is forgotten pretty much instantly. This movie isn't big on answering minor questions like who, what, when, where or why. During the operation, one of them holds another at gun point and forces her to shoot a prisoner rather than, say, just doing it himself. Yeah, that's what you do with someone who you will need to have your back on future missions.
They go back to base. The elevator is out so they take the stairs. The story starts? They are trapped on endless stairs forced to go up and up with only a few minutes rest each flight of stairs. What is going on?
The premise is fairly original though it does bear some resemblance to SCP-087 The Endless Stairs. The execution is lacking. Most of the movie takes place on a couple of flights of the blandest concrete stairs imaginable. I think they're in a concrete parking garage somewhere. The acting ranges from passable for a low budget horror movie to terrible. The dialogue is really bad. Characters do and say things that make no sense.
I would have given this thing a 3-4 star rating. Then the ending happened. It's a giant middle finger to the audience and makes the entire rest of the movie a pointless waste of time.
They go back to base. The elevator is out so they take the stairs. The story starts? They are trapped on endless stairs forced to go up and up with only a few minutes rest each flight of stairs. What is going on?
The premise is fairly original though it does bear some resemblance to SCP-087 The Endless Stairs. The execution is lacking. Most of the movie takes place on a couple of flights of the blandest concrete stairs imaginable. I think they're in a concrete parking garage somewhere. The acting ranges from passable for a low budget horror movie to terrible. The dialogue is really bad. Characters do and say things that make no sense.
I would have given this thing a 3-4 star rating. Then the ending happened. It's a giant middle finger to the audience and makes the entire rest of the movie a pointless waste of time.
This movie was a bit of a disaster from the very first scene!
omendata19 November 2020
Potentially interesting idea if you can actually figure out what the idea was but with execrable acting , dreadful fight scenes, laugh-a-minute dialogue and the usual constant foul language which I feel these days is incredibly sad and denigrates all the old movies of the past that did not need to use it, combined with poor special effects quickly put paid to that notion!
Film fell apart quite quickly and I began that "clock watching - when is it finishing scenario" after they started repeating the same interminably boring action sequence over and over again for over 2 hours...yes two hours of your life you will never get back.
I read the reviews first and a "Promising first 10 minutes" was a bit generous and out by around 9 minutes!
Barely a horror film, in fact barely a film at all it was that boring and tedious watching some of the worst acting ever put to celluloid...or was it a cheapo Xiaomi handy-cam? hard to be sure with the constant blue filter used to mask some of the poor scenery and effects!
The film looks like it was partly shot on a field in the middle of Milton Keynes with a couple of old army vehicles borrowed from the local scrapyard and inside the stairwell of a block of flats in Peckham - sadly Del Boy and Rodney did not turn up in their three wheeler to alleviate the boredom!
The fact the movie cannot be found on going under its name as I am watching it on the horror channel of "The Ascent" also makes me scratch my head; even more so when I do another search and up comes the Imdb page with a Dvd cover under the name "BLACK OPS" or under Amazon as Legacy - Black Ops but the name of the movie on Imdb is the highly original "STAIRS" makes me shake my head even more. It is as if they were looking for the best clickbait title they could find that would hoodwink the unfortunate punter...sadly none worked!
As always I did hang in until the end....unfortunately!!! You would be better of just hanging yourself than watching this utter British drivel! Summary: Dreadful from first scene to the mind numbing last!
Film fell apart quite quickly and I began that "clock watching - when is it finishing scenario" after they started repeating the same interminably boring action sequence over and over again for over 2 hours...yes two hours of your life you will never get back.
I read the reviews first and a "Promising first 10 minutes" was a bit generous and out by around 9 minutes!
Barely a horror film, in fact barely a film at all it was that boring and tedious watching some of the worst acting ever put to celluloid...or was it a cheapo Xiaomi handy-cam? hard to be sure with the constant blue filter used to mask some of the poor scenery and effects!
The film looks like it was partly shot on a field in the middle of Milton Keynes with a couple of old army vehicles borrowed from the local scrapyard and inside the stairwell of a block of flats in Peckham - sadly Del Boy and Rodney did not turn up in their three wheeler to alleviate the boredom!
The fact the movie cannot be found on going under its name as I am watching it on the horror channel of "The Ascent" also makes me scratch my head; even more so when I do another search and up comes the Imdb page with a Dvd cover under the name "BLACK OPS" or under Amazon as Legacy - Black Ops but the name of the movie on Imdb is the highly original "STAIRS" makes me shake my head even more. It is as if they were looking for the best clickbait title they could find that would hoodwink the unfortunate punter...sadly none worked!
As always I did hang in until the end....unfortunately!!! You would be better of just hanging yourself than watching this utter British drivel! Summary: Dreadful from first scene to the mind numbing last!
Gave it 1 star for original story
eventlaunch16 June 2020
None of those fancy Hollywood trimmings...
andrewjbethell17 June 2020
You don't need an overinflated budget and over the top special effects to keep people entertained. I quickly got bored with the transformers movies and was unable to finish that yawn-fest, the avengers, yet quite happily sat through this movie.
A wastting time movie
bagazi26 June 2020
Don't listen to the bad reviews.
brianhenneman-8814726 March 2022
Stairway to Hell
IndieZeus7 November 2020
Low budget horror about a special ops task force who find themselves climbing a never ending stairwell starring Shayne Ward (ex Coronation Street and Pop star).
Has a bit of a 'twilight zone' vibe. Set pieces are nicely executed, script and performances decent and there's a bold use of colour to set the tone.
Has a bit of a 'twilight zone' vibe. Set pieces are nicely executed, script and performances decent and there's a bold use of colour to set the tone.
Here comes the suck!
kelleyjohnston15 May 2021
Fast-forward is your friend
PsychoBeard66622 February 2021
I watched the first 14 minutes, fast-forwarded to around 60 minutes, heard a terrible line of dialogue then fast-forwarded to the last 22 minutes.
Shane Ward is the lead. That should be your first red flag. The constant blue filter should be your second. The terrible acting should be enough for you to turn this film off. If you've stuck around to see how the premise is executed, more fool you! The 1 star reviews are accurate. Anybody who gives this higher must've been on drugs when they watched it and I envy them.
Written and directed by Tom Paton. Remember the name so you can avoid anything else he's attached to.
Shane Ward is the lead. That should be your first red flag. The constant blue filter should be your second. The terrible acting should be enough for you to turn this film off. If you've stuck around to see how the premise is executed, more fool you! The 1 star reviews are accurate. Anybody who gives this higher must've been on drugs when they watched it and I envy them.
Written and directed by Tom Paton. Remember the name so you can avoid anything else he's attached to.
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