Review of Compliance (2012) by Archibald T — 03 Nov 2012

Prank calls can be fun. When you prank call someone in a different accent or voice it can be a real hoot. Sadly, like with many fun things, some people can find ways to turn something "innocent" into something disturbing. Take the situation at the ChickWich. An ordinary boring day in the life of a few employees. Or it looks to be a bit of different day for one employee. Becky is 19. She's young, pretty and just needs a job. Her manager, Sandra, doesn't exactly like Becky, but doesn't hate her either. It's more of a older woman slightly resenting the pretty teen who gets most of the attention. Well, that attention is about to be fully on for the rest of the day when Sandra receives a call from someone claiming to be an Officer.

The Officer directs Sandra to bring in Becky who happens to be the one described by the officer to have stolen some money from a customer's purse. Now Sandra the manager is one of those people who thinks she's doing the right thing, but never really thinks. She has a good heart, somewhere, but wouldn't be the type of person you'd want to be around for long periods of time due to her excessive gullibility. One example would be how the "officer" directs her to do humiliating things to Becky. First off, Becky has to strip all of her clothes off for fear that Becky maybe hiding the money somewhere on her body. There's no money, nothing stolen, but instead Sandra and a few others are being played by a smooth criminal.

The caller who is behind this cruel act happens to be a family man with nothing better to do. He's so suave with directing people to do these terrible things that it seems to relax him. He even makes himself a sandwich while telling Sandra to get her fiancee to come in and search Becky (who is nude at this point btw). Talk about talent. Sandra's fiancee submits to forcefully doing what this man tells him. Even to go to the extreme by having to spank Becky and to receive oral sex from her. At this point you'd have to tell yourself: WHAT THE FUCK ARE THESE PEOPLE THINKING?! JUST HANG UP THE PHONE!

Sandra is simply following orders. Like the Gestapo would do. I haven't seen something this traumatic since United 93. In fact, this film is very United 93-ish. Just without the terrorists. The man on the phone is kind of like a dictator, commanding Sandra to follow orders to completely humiliate this young girl into stripping off her clothes. Psychology plays a big part on the callers part and he plays Sandra like a fiddle and she plays well. Complying with every command without hesitation. The victim here is powerless due to the suave nature of the caller. He's playing a game here. A sick game.

This film is inspired by several different events that have dealt with prank calls to fast food restaurants telling the manager or supervisor to degrade mostly female employees. One such event took place in Fargo, North Dakota in 1999 where a 17 year old Burger King employee was slapped on her naked butt. Then another case in Kentucky, which this film is mostly based on, where a McDonalds employee was stripped completely naked because the young girl was suspected of stealing. Another McDonald's employee experienced the same thing except had to jog and assume several positions. However, the inspiration was entirely based on the one in Kentucky. If you haven't read about it, you should. It's insane and completely devoid of any type of reasonable understanding when it came to moral choices and gut instincts.

There's a dark comedic tone to this whole film. You want to laugh at what is absurd, but also squirm at what you're witnessing. People like this exist. No question. This film received a ton of walk outs and screaming matches when shown at the Sundance Film Festival. It is a film that will make people very angry in terms of it's long drawn out depiction of sexual humiliation. Kind of like what rape did for 'I Spit On Your Grave'. I don't think I'd want to see it again. Not because I didn't like it, but because it's something you don't want to see again after you've seen it. Until a few years go by and I want to see something disturbing involving fast food employees I'll see it again.