Movies
‘The Belko Experiment’ Teaser Shuts Down an Office Building for War
Orion and BH Tilt acquired Greg McLean’s The Belko Experiment, written by Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn (also writer of Dawn of the Dead and director of SLiTHER), out of the Toronto International Film Festival this past September with plans to release in theaters on March 17, 2017.
Gunn, who is quite active on social media, shared the following teaser ahead of this week’s trailer premiere (Nov. 30). The vibe is something along the lines of Office Space meets Battle Royale (or Hunger Games for the uninitiated).
Our very own Joe Lipsett reviewed the film out of TIFF calling it “a cocktail of murder and laughs.”
The cast is massive, including Tony Goldwyn, Adria Arjona (“True Detective”), John Gallagher Jr. (10 Cloverfield Lane), John C. McGinley (“Scrubs”), Sean Gunn (Super), David Dalmastian, Michael Rooker (Henry, Slither, “The Walking Dead”), Steven Blakeheart, Owain Yeoman, Rusty Schwimmer, Melonie Diaz, Josh Brener, David Del Rio, Abraham Benrubi, Gail Bean, Joe Fria, Ben Davis, James Earl, Brent Sexton, Mikaela Hoover, Valentine Miele.
Back in May, McLean told us that Belko is “insanely violent and totally crazy…and total genius because of it.”
James wrote this amazing script full of heart, hilarious dark humour and amazing characters all wrapped around this wild concept (I won’t give away) so I cannot wait till it comes out and people see the movie.
“Belko revolves around the American Belco company in South America which is mysteriously sealed off at the beginning of a work day,” Gunn explained when announced, “and its employees are ordered to kill each other or be killed themselves. This starts an escalation of violence, where we discover the true nature of each and every Belco employee.”
On what appears to be a normal day at Belko Industries, Belko employees are horrified when they find out that they’ve become guinea pigs in a company-wide experiment which will lead them to either kill their fellow employees or be murdered themselves. The experiment is masterminded by a mysterious voice which is controlling the loud speaker and instructing the employees to slaughter each other by any means necessary.
McLean also directed The Darkness, Wolf Creek and Rogue.
Before updating the video nasty Faces of Death, director Daniel Goldhaber and writer Isa Mazzei explored the dangers of online life in tech-thriller Cam, their feature debut that was acquired by Netflix in 2018 after making waves on the festival circuit.
At the end of last year, the Netflix exclusive quietly departed from the streaming platform, left without another streaming home.
It’s not an isolated story; Mike Flanagan’s Hush also left streaming entirely for a period until it was finally picked up on both physical media and other streaming services.
While the tech-thriller currently isn’t available to watch on Netflix, Tubi, Hulu, or any other platforms, that’s not a problem for Cam thanks to a very cool move by Goldhaber: the director has made his breakout film accessible to watch online for free via his website.
As his site notes: “CAM is unfortunately not currently available to view on any platforms, so you can watch it here if you like :).“
No subscriptions or fees necessary, just hit play.
Cam follows Alice (Madeline Brewer), who works as an online cam girl obsessed with her ranking on the cam site. The higher her ranking goes, the more it draws unwanted attention, and Alice soon finds herself replaced on her own show with a doppelganger.
Written by Mazzei, a former camgirl, it uses the horror thriller premise to examine the life of a sex worker; Alice’s career ambition is directly at odds with the shame it brings to her family, and how she tries to spare them from it by keeping them in the dark. It only compounds her danger when the doppelganger enters the equation in Goldhaber’s engaging thriller.
For a deep dive into the treacherous world of Cam, listen to Horror Queers’ episode on it now.
You must be logged in to post a comment.