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'The Belko Experiment' Is Office Politics For Keeps

Think 'Office Space' by way of 'Battle Royale' ... with a little 'The Purge' thrown in!

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'The Belko Experiment' Is Office Politics For Keeps


In a twisted social experiment, 80 Americans are locked in their high-rise corporate office in Bogotá, Colombia and ordered by an unknown voice coming from the company's intercom system to participate in a deadly game of kill or be killed.

"Your task

is simply this: kill three of your coworkers or we will kill six others."



If you only know James Gunn's as co-writer and director of The Gaurdians of the Galaxy (and the up-coming GotG Vol. 2), then you might find his involvement in The Belko Experiment surprising.
If you know James Gunn wrote the Dawn of the Dead remake,and The Specials, and directed Super & Slither, then you are completely unsurprised. It has his fingerprints all over it!

The Belko Experiment is a violent, brutal, and bloody movie (see Red band trailer above!) with moments of dark humor(the music choices especially). Its smartest feature is putting you in the position of all the characters: would you kill someone, especially one you know, to save more lives? You question everyone's decisions, and force yourself to wonder how you'd get on.

Gunn and director Greg McClean move quickly to establish the people and relationships in the building, from maintenance staff and food service up to middle management and officers of this branch (there's more than one...). I especially liked the fact that one of the characters is staring their first day! Once we get the players and landscape set, it just GOES!

At 88 minutes, The Belko Experiment is a lean and mean movie.

There a good mix of actors both known (Tony Goldwyn, John C McGinley, Michael Rooker), up-and-comers (Adria Arjona, John Gallagher Jr.), and less-known (Brent Sexton, Sean Gunn) to keep you wondering who's going to change and who's going to end up dead. The are several great turns of characters going in directions we don't expect, as well as meeting fates that are unexpected.

That's where it loses me, near the end.

The final people left fighting each other are far too telegraphed early in the film for my taste. There are several ways and characters that are either more “worthy” or would have been more interesting to end up having to battle to the death. For a movie that's spent the rest of the time being smart and subversive about who lives and dies, the final battle ended fairly obvious to me.

Unless I'm just a horrible person, just waiting for my chance to fight my co-workers to the death?
Which is possible...

I'm sure The Belko Experiment will get to be a cult favorite when it hits Blu and streaming.
When that happens, might I suggest a double feature with Office Space?

NOTE: There is no post-credits scene.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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