Vivarium

Vivarium feels like an extended episode of The Twilight Zone, and that's where the film stumbles. It starts off strong, with an opening sequence that's funny and perfectly sets up a bizarre atmosphere that grows increasingly unsettling with each passing moment. However, the story soon begins to feel stretched-out. For over an hour, the plot doesn't progress much and starts to drag. It only picks up again towards the end, culminating in a decent twist that you can probably guess halfway through. The story wraps up nicely and everything falls into place, but it doesn’t deliver anything particularly surprising. (08.10.2019)

With an appropriate runtime, Vivarium would perhaps be fine as an episode of The Twilight Zone, whereas the format of a ten-page comic book would suit it even better. But for a feature-length film, there is not enough material here, while being too literal and having zero overlap. It suffices to have a look at the credits and see the production company, and then it’s no wonder. XYZ Films, which like the Twitch Film website, now known as the boastful Screen Anarchy, was founded by company owner Todd Brown, has made a trademark out of elevating genre flicks with fresh ideas. Unfortunately, all of its projects lack development, dramaturgy and maturation of the theme, which are precisely the ills that befall Vivarium. It’s nice that XYZ Films is engaging more big-name actors, but it would be much more essential to hire a script editor for its productions. (19.05.2019)

An unusual mystery mindfuck that has a fine idea and premise, but hits a slower pace. Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots have another joint role after The Art of Self-Defense, and once again their performances are very good and likeable. The main characters find themselves in a labyrinthine suburban sprawl from which there is no escape, and they also have to raise a strange child. The film moves at a slower pace, as I mentioned, but it manages to disturb and even chill a few times, and I consider the finale to be very good with a good twist. All in all, decent, but I don't need to see it again. Story****, Action>No, Humor>No, Violence*, Entertainment***, Music***, Visual***, Atmosphere***, Suspense***. 6/10. (30.03.2020)

The hopeful start to this movie, the brisk introduction to the storyline, spiced up with some weird humor drew me in - I said to myself that I hoped it would not get bogged down and monotonous too soon, which, unfortunately, did happen here. The screenplay and its objective could have been made into a short film with a running time of thirty minutes. However, in the 97-minute version, everything starts to get very repetitive very quickly, and at the end, it gets slightly annoying. The central mystery is presented in a way to make it end simply according to its cyclical narrative, however, that does not leave the audience much room to think, and does not offer possibilities for more powerful moments within the plot, which would have made Vivarium worth remembering. [Sitges 2019] (09.10.2019)

Excellent bizarre thing that gave me the chills several times. Vivarium can be funny in its black humour, when we detachedly watch the main characters trying to solve the unsolvable situation that they got into through no fault of their own, while at the same time, it can get on your nerves when you discover that this mad world has full control over the heroes and any attempt to fight against its (il)logic can be cruelly repaid. In a nutshell, an imaginative prank, ideal for these times of quarantine, and criminally underrated. (03.05.2020)