Have You Been Watching...? Vivarium (2019)

 

Sometimes a movie comes along, and you hear the buzz (or lack of) and you make a conscious decision that this isn’t something you would want to see.  I’d heard of Vivarium when it first came out. The premise intrigued me, but it’s low budget and cast didn’t appeal to me, so I decided I would give it a miss.

Fast forward a couple of years when there’s nothing on the telly but Vivarium comes up on my suggested watches list. Well, in the absence of anything better, I pressed play and got ready for disappointment. Most movies these days have great ideas, then lose the plot as they move on.

Vivarium didn’t just exceed my expectations, it is a truly brilliant piece of work. Is it a horror story? Is it science fiction? Is it a warning? Who knows, there is so much to unpack in this movie and its tiny cast (number-wise, not in stature) doesn’t detract from the nightmare.

What’s it about, then? Tom and Gemma, a bright, happily-in-love young couple played by Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network, Zombieland, Now You See Me) and Imogen Poots (28 Weeks Later and new Amazon series Outer Range) decide to buy their first home together on a large, sprawling modern new-build estate. After being brought to the property by creepy salesman Martin (played by Jonathan Aris (The World’s End, The Martian), they find themselves alone after Martin disappears. Despite numerous attempts to leave, they keep finding their way back to the house.

It's going to be difficult to talk about the film without mentioning what happens in it. So, MILD SPOILERS AHEAD….

Things go from bad to worse when a box appears outside, with a baby in it. The instructions left with the baby suggest if they raise it, they will be released. The nightmare then continues to get worse.

Is it worth spending you time on? Absolutely, yes. What appears to be an extended episode of The Twilight Zone or such, turns into an eerie and downright bizarre affair. What I initially thought would be negatives actually turn into positives for this movie. It’s low budget and sets help maintain that eeriness. The estate looks like something out of a pop video, and it’s even mentioned in dialogue when characters discuss the clouds looking like “clouds”.  There is no imagination here. Everything does what it is supposed to do. The clearly unreal reality works in the movie’s favour.

Do we get answers? Not really. The movie’s main message appears to be joining in the expectations of society: a dream home, coupled bliss, having a child, become the epitome of the destruction of individuality, and a person’s worst nightmare is becoming a parent and homeowner!  The child develops throughout the movie, and becomes addicted to television, but in this case a surreal display of imagery and symbols that could be an alien language. Gemma and Tom do try to break out of their habitat several times, to their cost.

The ending of the movie throws up even more questions that ultimately remain unanswered. Usually this would have me yelling at the TV and thinking that they writers couldn’t find a way to resolve the story, but it WORKS here. Knowing less about what is going on seems to make this movie work better. Tom and Gemma don’t know, we don’t know and the only people who do know are the protagonists, whom we don’t even get to meet beyond “Martin” (and his final scene is nothing short of shocking!)

Vivarium is a good movie. Maybe not one to choose if you want a bubblegum movie, but if you want something to give you food for thought and is a little disconcerting, you’d do a lot worse than go for this one.

Year – 2019

Availability – Amazon Prime (at time of writing. Various language and subtitle options)

HYBW movie rating – 7/10

Have You Been Watching...? Lifeforce (1985)

 

I first saw “Lifeforce”, the 1985 Canon Group British/US horror movie, back in the 1990s, at some ungodly hour when I was a student. I recall being quite impressed by it. It was certainly unusual.

Fast forward to 2023 and I’ve recently watched it again, this time in glorious High Definition, and I have to admit, having not seen it in years meant I enjoyed it even more this time around.

The movie is based on a novel called “The Space Vampires” which does give the plot away somewhat. In the novel by Colin Wilson, the vampires suck out the victim’s life force/essence, thus making the renaming for the film a good move, it takes away that “spoiler”. The cast features a “who’s who” of cult TV and movie stars. Leading the pack is Patrick Stewart, just a few years away from his Captain Picard days. Joining him is Peter Firth (The Flipside of Dominick Hyde, Another Flip for Dominick, Spooks), Nicholas Ball (Hazell, Red Dwarf as the Justice Simulant, John Hallam (Moonbase 3, Dr Who as Light, Flash Gordon), Nancy Paul (whom I knew as Sara Brogan in Space Precinct) and Steve Railsback (sci-fi fans may remember him as alien abductee Duane Barry setting off a plotline that would run the entire series). The movie is directed by the legendary Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Salem’s Lot, Poltergeist, Invaders from Mars) and the music is by Henry Mancini (The Pink Panther, Breakfast at Tiffanys “Moon River”)

Lifeforce occupies a space in 1980s scifi horror fantasy in which the whole style of it, the cinematography, the special effects and music all combine to make a product of its time. It’s all swishy lights and lightning. Another example of this is the fantasy movie Krull and similarly, Highlander which all came out around the same time. Unfortunately, Lifeforce goes for a very mature audience, which means there’s a LOT of nudity. With a modern viewpoint, that can be a bit uncomfortable as they have no concerns showing female full frontal nudity but the men are spared.

So our story concerns a spaceship finding an alien craft near Halley’s comet (so 1985). They explore and find the remain of an alien culture and 3 humanoid forms in stasis. Later, the humans craft is destroyed and in the blink of an eye, the humanoid forms are now on earth being investigated. Of course, it all goes wrong and they escape to wreck havoc. It transpires that they’ve been here before! Our vampire legends have evolved from them. There are some truly impressive effects for the time, especially the exploration of the alien craft and the act of lifeforce transference, and if you can spot it, watch out for a surprising detail in the eyes of the vampires and their victims. Our heroes are Col. Colin Caine (Firth) and Col. Tom Carlson (Railsback),  It turns out one of our intrepid heroes is linked the space vampires in more ways than one and could be our saviour. Cue a lot of running (and flying) around, vampire shenanigans, gore aplenty, London being raised to the ground by second generation lifeforce vampires and nice characters getting bumped off in gruesome ways. As dramatic and illuminating the final scene is, I’m still not 100% sure how it ended. It runs for 116mins (international cut) and surprisingly doesn’t seem to lag at all. It’s helped along by the fact our space vampire can jump into others’ bodies and the “investigation” of our heroes probably helps keep it flowing.

Lifeforce is not a masterpiece by any margin, especially when it gets to the “apocalypse” phase, but it’s a cracking yarn and actually a lot of fun. There are some decidedly “iffy” moments (the bit on the helicopter is interesting but seems to serve no purpose and you may never see Picard in the same way again). However, if there are no kids around and you don’t mind seeing a bit of “ladyparts”, you’ll quite possibly enjoy this one!

Year: 1985

Availability: Currently streaming on Amazon Freevee (at time of writing), also on Blu Ray from Arrow Video.

Rating: 7/10