Rating of
3/4
What the Purge movies should have been.
Indyfreak - wrote on 08/11/17
Bloody, gory, deranged, and surprisingly enough, a darkly comical thrill ride. The Belko Experiment basically crosses the passive aggressive social commentary in works such as Office Space with the gruesome violence from schlock such as The Purge or to a lesser extent, The Hunger Games.
Director Greg McLean flexes his muscles with the blood and guts splatterfest. There is some exciting and intense action mixed with some pretty dark and sadistic violence. It's unflinchingly brutal.
At the same time though, the humor and satirical elements are pretty funny. It helps that the cast isn't bad either. The cast is made up of "oh yea that guy" actors and actresses, some of whom made a few horror movies or similar genres. Admittedly, the characters are introduced with one quirk or personality trait at first. But then they're defined by action rather than dialogue once the suspense increases. Some cast members especially sink their teeth into the high concept premise and go way over the top like John C. McGinley or Sean Gunn.
The Belko Experiment will be dismissed as another gorefest masquerading as social satire. I say it works perfectly fine as both.
