Containment (2015)
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Critic Reviews for Containment
All Critics (9) | Fresh (9) | Rotten (0)
There's nothing groundbreaking in this low-budget sci-fi thriller, but newbie director Mcenery-West makes excellent use of his claustrophobic setting.
It's a niftily executed viral-outbreak thriller that, true to its title, makes good use of confined space to ratchet up the drama of the situation, while working hard to bypass the more obvious narrative traps it creates for itself.
Containment proves that you don't need a whopping great budget, nor an A-list cast to produce an accomplished piece of work.
Strong attention to detail and a disquieting score set this debut feature apart, but some of the characters' motivations aren't entirely convincing.
Gets by on resourcefulness and sincerity.
A good British sci-fi thriller that makes good use of tight spaces.
Audience Reviews for Containment
This is not what I would call the most inventive or unique movie I've ever seen, since it reminds me a lot of the first Rec, without the zombie. But it shares a lot of similarities, in that the film is contained in the apartment building and there's a certain claustrophobic qualities to the events taking place in this film. At the very least, however, there's no zombies and it's all about avoiding the viral outbreak that has broken out in the apartment complex. The film is well-written and it has a solid cast that makes the concept work. It's not that this is a difficult film to pull off, but it doesn't always work in execution and I think this film definitely pulled off the desperation of the situation and the claustrophobia fairly well. It also helps that the film is, barely, 70 minutes long. That means there's no real time to waste and they get right down to business almost immediately. However, that also means that there's no real time to develop any of the characters' personalities. I mean they do the bare minimum, as in you can tell who's who and what their basic personality is, but they don't really go in depth. Not that they even could, with the limited time they had available. Then again, at the very least, this way, you're focused more on the situation that is taking place and not necessarily on a deep exploration of who the characters are deep down. Another shitty review, but there's really not much to write about here. At the very least, however, the Hazmats, as they refer to them, aren't portrayed as out and out villains. The problem with a lot of these films is that it is clearly black and white. The government is evil and wants to kill its citizens. And I say this as someone who's fairly anti-government. At the very least, however, this movie tried to be a little more shades of grey. I do believe that the hazmats really did want to help, they weren't portrayed as evil government scientists. So that's something. With that said, this is still a fairly enjoyable movie. It's super short and easy to watch. If you have Amazon Prime then it's something I'd recommend. There's nothing you really need to see here, but it's a pretty good movie even with its flaws.
Super Reviewer
A group of tenants find themselves locked in their apartment building with mysterious people in haz-mat gear lurking outside. Much like The Mist this is a character-driven drama/horror film that exposes human avarice under stress. Its plot is relatively simple but nonetheless compelling. However, one of the pitfalls of this genre of horror film is that the characters often get reduced to types or are left not fully realized; both circumstances befall Containment's characters. Overall, strong performances and strong direction doesn't solve the small problems with this good effort.
Super Reviewer
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