I'm quite happy for James Gunn's success. Though I'm sure he's not yet a household name, he's been a writer/director that I've been fond of for quite awhile. He penned the script for the Dawn of the Dead remake, he wrote and directed a great, underrated 'monster' movie, Slither, he followed that up with the very little seen, but also underrated Super, until he found major blockbuster success with Guardians of the Galaxy. He's definitely got a unique voice and he turned what could've been just another generic comic book adaptation/Star Wars knock off film and gave it the ole' James Gunn 'umph' and turned it into something rare and rejuvenating. The Belko Experiment is a script he wrote several years before Guardians, but had a difficult time finding funding. Finally, with his recent success, he was able to find a production company and director to take the script and make it real. I don't exactly know how I feel about the film because it does have bits and pieces of Gunn's voice, but after watching the film the only thing that comes to mind is-- how much better would it have been had Gunn been the one to direct it?
Deep in the boonies of Colombia lies a giant office building. Inside are people of all races and creeds working their normal nine to five boring jobs. A voice comes over the intercom telling the workers that in the next half hour, they need to kill two people or four will be murdered. Thinking its a joke, minor panic ensues, but no one really takes the threat seriously. When four employee's heads explode and giant metallic barriers block every window and exit... that's when people start to lose their shit. The voice returns saying that in the next two hours thirty employees must be murdered or sixty will be executed. This is where the sociological experiment begins. People form factions. There's the "good guys" who look to work together to find a way out of the situation. And there's the "bad guys" (like the CEO and the office creep) who want to find a way to kill thirty people before they're killed themselves. And thus the terror and action and murder and blood and plot begins.
While I really like the idea of The Belko Experiment, I have a really big issue with the execution of said ideas. What the film looked like was a Purge-esque romp of over-the-top violence and gore surrounding some huge conspiracy of an outside organization using human beings for some sociology experiment. What should've followed is a slew of ingenius and creative and exaggerated death scenes and kills. What, unfortunately, occurs is a very realistic (sorta) portrayal of the events of the film. Instead of watching buckets and buckets of blood splattered by outrageous and excessive means is a true to life depiction of if people in an office were forced to kill each other. And it became too real. What I mean by that is-- I'm a horror aficionado. Blood and gore never really get to me because 99% of the time I'm aware that I'm watching a horror movie and what I'm witnessing is fake. The best horror is devoid of blood and emphasizes thrills and suspense. On the other side of that coin is the excessively bloody and gory horror that use the gore as the main factor of fear-- the shock value replaces the scary (these are films like Hostel and Hatchet and Saw). I thought The Belko Experiment was going to fall into that latter category.
What made the movie feel so "real" and what made me so uncomfortable is that the kills weren't exaggerated and over-the-top. They were real. Lining up people against the wall, people with true fear in their eyes, and shooting them in the back of the head one-by-one is fucking awful to witness. Watching these people chased around screaming in an office building by those with guns only really makes you feel as you would if you were watching footage of a real-life mass shooting-- fucking terrible. And because most of the movie was devoid of these "overkills" and lacked that James Gunn 'voice'... it felt all too real, which made the movie less scary, and more... just... sick. I haven't seen a movie like this where I couldn't really justify sitting there and watching a bunch of innocent people just gunned down for no reason all for the sole purpose of entertainment.
So, I wonder... how would the movie been different had Gunn taken the helm? The script was his and has less of his voice than any of his other movies, but it was his baby. Director Greg McLean (Wolf Creek) took what should've been a very Battle Royale/The Purge/The Raid-esque movie and made it just a little bit too close to reality. For one, the sound effects of the gunshots and blood and murders are more detailed than most horror films, which added to the realism. And normally, realism isn't a negative thing to say about a film... but for some strange reason... this time, it is. One of the biggest causes of this, too, is the lack of creativity with the kills. I've learned that in horror and action movies, you specifically pick your setting to reflect your action sequences. These people are locked in a mundane office setting. They should be using everything normal office workers use on a daily basis as murder weapons. They should be killing people with staplers, and broken coffee mugs, and cubicle boards, and computer monitors. Instead, they unlock a safe full of guns for the security guards and most of the kills are demented office employees in white t-shirts and ties shooting other innocent office employees in white t-shirts and ties.
It really did strike a chord in me and this doesn't happen often. I went to the movie to witness people murdering other people in a locked-down office building, but never did I think I would leave with a sour taste in my mouth because the movie felt too real and just disgusting. I feel like an old man who accidentally walked into the wrong theater and I'm telling my other older friends about how filthy and depraved the youth have gotten in their film choices. There's horror for entertainment and then there's just being a murder-voyeur. The Belko Experiment felt more like a snuff film than a horror film.
And maybe I've just recently become to sensitive, because I do like the idea of the movie. I liked some of the characters and set-ups that (kinda) pay off, there's just a huge chunk in the middle that I can't justify for any reason. So, this is a very difficult film to grade. It's not a 'bad' movie... it's just something I don't think I could really ever watch again.
C
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