Review of Compliance (2012) by Ryan P — 23 Apr 2013

Compliance is a creepy film. Not because of gore or violence, but because it makes you think, and puts you in a dark moral place that is quite uncomfortable. With no violence or monsters in sight, it's still probably the best film of its ilk in 2012.

Like the Milgram and Zombardo experiments have shown, quite shockingly, as well as numerous atrocities around the world, it doesn't take truly awful people to do evil. In this small town American fast food joint, a manager becomes an unquestioning assistant to a depraved man, who gets his sexual kicks from humiliating young women and toying with people. Watching this, all you can wonder is: "how did everyone go f***king insane for 2 hours and let this happen?" The scary part is, as the film reminds us, this has happened 70 times over the course of a decade. So, it's really not as crazy as it seems.

The film is quite and ponderous, it leaves you uneasy. The fact that the "police officer" is clearly the most charismatic person in the whole film is pretty disturbing. Zobel knows how to push all the right buttons and that's what makes this small story so compelling.

What I liked most is despite the banal setting, the story speaks volumes (scarily) about humanity, and what it takes for us to do evil. Horror and thrillers like to have a villain, a sociopath or a monster, a figure of clear evil. There is one here, but the disturbing part is, the film explains even the most unassuming person can be caught up in it, given the right circumstances and the right kind of authority.

Hopefully, more light is shed on this, and people can begin to deconstruct the world they live in a little more. I know I will.