Review: The Belko Experiment (18)

Staff cuts and corporate headhunting are embraced with bloodthirsty and literal glee in The Belko Experiment.
BAD DAY AT WORK: A scene from The Belko Experiment: PA Photo/Vertigo.BAD DAY AT WORK: A scene from The Belko Experiment: PA Photo/Vertigo.
BAD DAY AT WORK: A scene from The Belko Experiment: PA Photo/Vertigo.

Set predominantly within an office building in Bogota, Colombia, Greg McLean’s lurid horror doesn’t skimp on the splatter as craniums explode in stomach-churning close-up to an amusingly kitsch soundtrack including Latin versions of I Will Survive and California Dreamin’.

Those tongue-in-cheek, retro music cues are just what you would expect from screenwriter James Gunn, creative dynamo behind the riotous comic 
book romp Guardians Of The Galaxy and its forthcoming sequel.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The relentless carnage and nihilism are not, including one balletic sequence of barbarism orchestrated to Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1.

Buried deep within all of the brain matter and glistening entrails is a half-baked satire about dog-eat-dog workplace culture, but like most of the protagonists, McLean’s picture hankers for an orgy of dismemberment rather than an intelligent conversation about corporate greed.

The light in the darkness is John Gallagher Jr’s endearing performance as an egalitarian middle manager, who advocates open discussion not warfare.

His sweetness cuts through the acridity of McLean’s unquenchable desire to shoot and disembowel anything with a pulse.

In selected cinemas.

Related topics: