Civilization versus savagery

Mbakkel2

score 3/10

80 employees are locked inside a large building. A voice orders them over the intercom to kill two of their workmates within an hour. They are later ordered to kill 30 more within two hours, or else 60 will be killed. Small tracking devices have been implanted in their occiputs. The tracking devices are made to explode.

The Belko Experiment is not unlike disaster films, in which a certain number of people are locked inside a building or a ship. The viewers become familiar with the characters. We get attached to some of them and hope they will survive. The questions are: Who will survive and who will not survive? Who keep a cool head and who become desperate? These questions also apply to this movie.

Moreover, in such crisis situations, self-appointed and wise leaders, who are good at improvising, emerge. The less wise lose their lives because of heedlessness.

You may very well look upon "The Belko Experiment" as an adult version of "Lord of the Flies", William Golding's novel about school boys marooned on a remote island. They are eventually divided into two groups. The members of one group , led by Ralph, want to remain civilized. The members of the other group, led by Jack, degenerate into savagery.

The employees of "The Belko Experiment" are also divided into such groups. The Ralph character in this film is Mike Milch, while the Jack character is Belco's chief operating officer Barry Norris. Eventually the differences between the two groups are wiped out. The "civilized" also kill, but in self-defense.

Such an experiment has never taken place in reality, and it is impossible to know if the film is credible or not. I longed for a psychological explanation of why the different employees chose the way they did. The screen writer has probably no talent for psychology.

It was expected that the impudent Wendell Dukes, who didn't take a no for an answer from a female workmate, should end up in the "wrong" group. However, it would have been more effective if he to everyone's surprise had landed on the "right" side, to prove that there could be something good in such men as well.

Screen writer James Gunn, with two films about "Scoobi Doo" on his list, is no William Golding. Gunn will never be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, as was the case with Golding.

The boys in "Lord of the Flies" drop into savagery after staying on the island for several weeks or months. In "The Belko Experiment" it happens after a very short time. Yes, I really wonder how likely it is.

Eventually, the film turns out to be a big murder spree. Clenched skulls and blood drooling from mouths eventually become common. Barry and his group don't just shoot people, they chop them with axes too. In fact, I feel that the idea of an experiment really was used as a pretext to give the viewers one and a half hour of killing.

Who did I like best? Yes, most charming was the Laurel and Hardy-like couple Marty Espenscheid and Chet Valincou.

Mbakkel2 5 July 2017

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3746661/