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The Belko Experiment

The Belko Experiment: Interesting Ideas Never Come to Be in Disappointing Horror

  • Adria ArjonaBrent Sexton...
  • HorrorThriller
  • Greg McLean
reviewed by
Marija Djurovic
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The Belko Experiment: Interesting Ideas Never Come to Be in Disappointing Horror

While the concept behind Greg McLean’s B-movie slaughterhouse-horror is relatively interesting and tries explore the limits of a human mind and the extents it will go to when faced with a kill-or-be-killed situation, The Belko Experiment, written by Guardians of the Galaxy’s James Gunn, is unfortunately weighed down by weak execution and underdeveloped ideas of unhinged violence which never really reach the heights it might have aimed for. 

The story begins with just another business day at the Colombia-based non-profit company Belko Enterprises; a corporation which offers global marketing training for both the locals and the Americans employees who work there. Arriving to work that day are Chief Operating Officer, Barry Norris (Goldwyn) and employees, Mike Velch (Gallagher Jr.), Wendell Duke (McGinley) and Leandra Jerez (Arjona) who are completely unaware that their life will soon be turned upside down.  

With no prior warning, their entire building is soon put on locked down and is sealed off by metal shutters, allowing for no one to escape. A mysterious voice over the intercom soon comes on, informing all of the 80 employees present that they need to kill off two of their co-workers otherwise many more will die. Thinking that this is just someone’s idea of a sick joke, all of the employees are quick to brush it off as a silly prank.  However, they soon realse that the situation at hand is real and when the stakes are risen to the point of absurdity, the fight for survival begins with everyone’s integrity, mental-strength and courage put to the ultimate test.  

While there are certainly moments of terror and blood-drenched violence present in the film – a story which takes its inspiration but none of the quality, structure or courage from the 2000’s Japanese cult hit Battle Royale – one can’t help but feel a little underwhelmed by the lack of creativity in developing the story’s ideas and characters into anything even remotely meaningful. Attempting to offer a deep and a disturbing insight into the human psyche and the psychological effects of being trapped in such a situation, The Belko Experiment – a movie which perhaps would have worked better as a dark comedy – delivers on the blood and gore, but none of the logic or reasoning to transcend it above being an unnecessarily serious, nonsensical mess.

Serving as the story’s main protagonist – an office hero if you like – Gallagher Jr.  is the one who gets stuck with most of the heavy-lifting whilst most, if not all, of the supporting characters are only there to fill in the blank office space, serving to be nothing but disposable props who suffer terrible and painful deaths, which in return end up prompting very little interest or sympathy from those watching. 

Like This? Try

Battle Royale (2000), The Hunger Games (2012), Hush (2016

360 Tip

Fans of Greg Mclean’s past two Wolf Creek movies will be happy to know that the third instalment of the horror film-series has recently been announced. 

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