Review of The Belko Experiment (2017) by Matt G — 11 Aug 2018

Crackerjack horror/thriller is highly derivative, but highly entertaining for fans of these sorts of films. A group of Americans office workers find themselves unexpectedly locked inside a high-rise office building and ordered by a mysterious voice over the intercom that they need to murder two of their co-workers within two hours or there will be "consequences.

" Everyone thinks it's some kind of prank until four of their co-workers' heads explode (everyone has been implanted with a tracker/explosive device). That's when the mysterious voice comes on again to announce "By 2:47 pm, in two hours, we want 30 of you dead through whatever means necessary.

If 30 of you are not dead, we will end 60 of your lives through our own methods." That's when this office space turns into Lord of the Flies. Such a set up could easily have become a predictable routine slog of violence, but "The Belko Experiment" was directed by Greg McLean, who memorably directed the highly effective Australian horror film "Wolf Creek" (and to a lesser degree the fun giant alligator film "Rogue").

McClean does an excellent job of building suspense leading up to the explosive episodes of violence. The film was written by James Gunn, who wrote the the surprisingly good "Dawn of the Dead" remake along with writing and directing the underrated "Slither" and the very popular and somewhat subversive "Guardians of the Galaxy" films.

Gunn also wrote the underrated comedy "The Specials," which is the film that "The Mystery Men" should have been. What I'm trying to say about Gunn is that he's someone who has solid horror and genre chops, but he's also someone who brings a fair amount of subversive and dark humor to his films, which elevates "The Belko Experiment" from being a simple ripoff of "Battle Royale" to being a dark satire on office politics.

And on a straight horror level, I need to give McClean and Gunn credit for some of the deaths coming as genuine surprises, which is not something you get see often in most horror films. However, the situations and the characters are highly derivative and something you've seen many times before.

People argue about what to do. Everyone realizes there's no escape. Co-workers find themselves breaking off into factions. Character-wise, there's the jerk boss (an excellent Tony Goldwyn), the nice pretty girl (Adria Arjona), the boss' toadie (the great John C.

McGinley), the creepy janitor (Michael Rooker), the comic relief stoner (Sean Gunn), and there's, of course, the relatable normal-guy hero (John Gallagher Jr.). These character stereotypes are elevated by a stronger cast than you'd expect from low-budget thriller, but seeing that "The Belko Experiement" is from Blumhouse Productions (Get Out, Insidious, The Purge, Split, Upgrade), and is best horror film production company since Hammer, you should expect a quality film and that's exactly what you get.

Although "The Belko Experiment" is not for all tastes, if you're into these sorts of extreme horror/thrillers, it's is a must see.