From the looks of it, "Hostile Takeover" (aka "Office Party") really is still a relatively undiscovered 80's gem. It's directed by George Mihalka, the same man who brought us everybody's favorite 80's Canadian slasher flick "My Bloody Valentine". I had "Office Party" lying around for some time now, and finally came around to seeing it. And with this viewing, I managed to discover another film that pleasantly surprised me. This is one of the most unusual hostage-movies I've seen. As much as it is a poetic hostage-drama, it also is a weird psychological thriller with subtle touches of the horror, the disturbed & the traumatized. It moves at a fairly slow pace, bit still managed to keep me interested. It's best to know nothing about the plot. Obviously, the film deals with a hostage situation in an office building, but this time it has nothing to do with terrorists or criminals invading a public building. This is not an action movie, as some alternate posters might lead you to believe. All acting performances are very good (with David Warner probably being the most famous actor of the bunch). Michael Ironside is in this one too, and he was perfectly cast for this roll (nope, he's not the hostage-taker). Relatively unknown cult actor John Vernon also pops up in it. So genre fans are bound to have some fun with the cast. "Hostile Takeover" also features one of the bloodiest shotgun-blast splatter effects I've ever seen. My bet is this is a love-it-or-hate-it flick. I enjoyed it quite a lot. It's very offbeat and has an atmosphere to it that progressively grows stranger near the end.
Review of Hostile Takeover
