It’s no secret that we’re currently living in the Darkest Timeline. Political lines are harshly drawn, and the country has rarely been more divided than it is now. Misinformation spreads like wildfire, with AI and deepfake technology ensuring that we can never truly trust what it is we’re reading, let alone seeing. It’s sensitive material primed for a horror movie, but if you’re going to be dealing with the current state of world affairs, you should at least have something to add to the conversation.
Compliance, the feature debut of writer/director Kyle Mangione-Smith, aims to do just that. It’s a film with admirable ambition but lacks the necessary focus to make its point, making for an uneven horror experience that completely unravels by the time the credits roll.
Recent LA transplant Sam (Megan Wilcox) is a social worker hired as a PR rep for Airbnb-like company UVisit. When UVisit patron Sarah (Lindsey Normington, Anora) is brutally gang-raped at one of the company’s properties, Sam is sent in to force her to accept a cash payout in exchange for her silence or, as the film’s title suggests, compliance. The company also volunteers to cover Sarah’s counseling and legal fees.
Torn between natural human empathy and the demands of her job, Sam lies about having a history of abuse in an effort to bond with Sarah. The survivor catches on to the lie immediately, sending the corporate shill on her way after hinting at a larger conspiracy at play. Sam’s boss Harry (Charlie Wood) doesn’t have the patience for Sam’s “whole therapist thing” and eventually fires her when a colleague is able to get Sarah to sign an NDA. It’s not long before Sam finds a hidden camera in her apartment, sending her down an investigative rabbit hole of conspiracy theory trappings.
To its credit, Compliance starts promisingly, with its found footage/screenlife approach and Dark Web-centric plot suggesting something akin to Zachary Donohue’s exceptional and underseen 2013 chiller The Den. Following an intriguing first act that contains most of the film’s tensest moments, however, the film craters, briefly turning into an unengaging espionage thriller before devolving into a muddled political pseudo-satire that’s undercut by haphazard editing and an abruptly unsatisfying ending. The final act is chaotic in a way I don’t think Mangione-Smith intends, as it’s occasionally difficult to decipher just how many sides there are and who is on which one. Though perhaps that’s the point?
Mangione-Smith uses the screenlife format to his advantage when doling out exposition, such as an early scene in which we’re treated to an unskippable UVisit ad that plays before a news report Sam is watching. The voyeuristic nature of Compliance is keenly felt as well. Not limiting itself to just computer screens and camcorders, the film is presented via diegetic cameras of any kind, and boy howdy are there a lot of them. iPhones, security cameras, satellite imagery, body cams, computers, and more are used to make the audience feel just as complicit as Sam. Most of this is employed successfully, though the excessive use of digital artifacts gets old real fast, especially during a protracted late-game exposition dump from various news broadcasts.
Carrying the film is Wilcox, whose serviceable performance is strongest in the early scenes where she must grapple with the ethical dilemmas that her job entails. The actress sells Sam’s desperation well, especially in an unexpectedly humorous moment in which she almost gives herself bangs during a drunken haze of self-pity. Normington exudes the appropriate amount of mystique as Sarah, though she’s given far too little to do. Wood, meanwhile, delivers a rage-fueled performance so over-the-top that it becomes comical. This might have felt less tonally out of place if the satire were sharper, but it’s not.
Mostly, though, Compliance doesn’t really have anything to say, and subtlety is not its strong suit. Set in May of 2024 with plenty of references to the impending November election, Compliance is nothing if not topical. Though Donald Trump doesn’t exist in this universe, the mirroring to our current society is crystal clear. Content creators discussing how Naziism “isn’t really that bad” while empathizing with a mass shooter echo the current times, but we see all of this on a daily basis in real life. Compliance is content with simply reiterating the truth instead of actually commenting on it.
Compliance wears its feel-bad nature on its sleeves, and while its early scenes are engaging, the narrative quickly falls apart as the shifting genres begin to take hold. It’s a shame, as this material is ripe for a satirical horror approach. Compliance just isn’t it.
Compliance made its North American premiere at Fantastic Fest
