Earlier this week, I covered Joe Lynch's Mayhem. It is a super fun film that is just balls to the wall. Now this genre of horror is what I would consider to be Office Horror. If Mayhem is on one end of the spectrum, The Belko Experiment would be on the opposite end.
Today, I had the chance to revisit the film. In my memory, I kept putting both films together. But again, different ends of the spectrum for sure. The Belko Experiment was written by James Gunn and directed by Greg McLean. Now, we all know James Gunn. He wrote Dawn of the Dead '04 and was behind Slither. Then he got to tell some wonderful stories about the ragtag group of a-holes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Greg McLean, however, was a bit of a lesser name for me. But one of the films that remember him directing was the fantastic Wolf Creek. This team of Gunn and McLean is really awesome. They definitely helped make this film one to remember.
When I initially had seen the film, I loved it. A story about 80 workers locked in an office building in South America and being told they would have to participate in a game of kill or be killed. The mashup of the office world with the battle royale is kinda refreshing.
Now, before you start thinking that this is fast paced. It's a bit of a slower burn than Mayhem. That's something that works in the film's favor as it crafts a unique story. It gives us some time with the characters so that we can find some that we care about. It also makes sure we spend some time with characters that we will grow to hate.
This film is stacked in terms of it's casting. First off, we have Tony Goldwyn. At first, I immediately assumed he was going to be the bad guy. The reason being that typically he's cast as a bad guy. Plus you know, he was terrible in the Swayze movie Ghost. In this film, he has a very strong intimidating boss presence to his character. Next up is John C. McGinley. Yeah, it's Dr. Cox from Scrubs but don't forget he was in Stan Against Evil. That show was fantastic and was cancelled before it could get it's due. Typically, I just know him as a bit of a likeable guy. Here, nah. He gets to enjoy playing a horrible person. And then there's Owain Yeoman. He makes up the last of the three initial bad guys in the film. All three of them are a bit likeable. But they all have a reason to want to murder their coworkers - to get home to their families. However as the situation gets more desperate, the darker they become. Definitely some of memorable performances from these three.
On the opposition, we have John Gallagher Jr. He is our everyman. He is the audience in a way. He wants to be able to make it out of this along with his wife (?). Outside of this film, there hasn't been much I've seen him in. However, he delivers a great performance here.
I could go on about other actors and actresses. Because this is such a star studded cast. Literally everywhere you look you find someone you know. Or a there will be a character that you will like. You will even find some actors from the James Gunn usual suspects (Michael Roller, Sean Gunn and David Mastachilan).
Now the further the film moves along, the more insane things get. It's absolutely bonkers. There is even a scene that honestly wouldn't been out of place in The Suicide Squad. I mean who would sign up to work for a company that requires trackers implanted in your head.
So far with this review, I haven't given really much away in terms of the plot. And I'm not going to. This is a film that is underrated. It should be seen. I honestly think that it was just released at a wrong time. Or the very least, bad marketing for it. Go check it out.
Rating: 4 out of 5. (Would rank this on par with the original Purge. Still would love a sequel to find out more about the company.)
No comments:
Post a Comment