Vivarium (2019)

A young couple looking for the perfect home find themselves trapped in a mysterious labyrinth-like neighborhood of identical houses.

Director:

Lorcan Finnegan

Writers:

Lorcan Finnegan (story by), Garret Shanley (story by)

Stars:

Imogen Poots, Danielle Ryan, Molly McCann

3 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview:
Imogen Poots	...	Gemma
Danielle Ryan	...	School Mom
Molly McCann	...	Molly
Jesse Eisenberg	...	Tom
Jonathan Aris	...	Martin
Côme Thiry	...	Baby
Senan Jennings	...	Young Boy
Éanna Hardwicke	...	Older Boy (as Eanna Hardwicke)
Olga Wehrly	...	Crying Woman

Storyline

A young couple is thinking about buying their starter home. And to this end, they visit a real estate agency where they are received by a strange sales agent, who accompanies them to a new, mysterious, peculiar housing development to show them a single-family home. There they get trapped in a surreal, maze-like nightmare.

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Plot Keywords:

psychological torture | supernatural prison | rapidly growing child | digging | couple held captive | 

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Taglines:

You're Home. Forever

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Genres:

Comedy | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some sexuality/nudity.

Did You Know?

Trivia

Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg previously starred in The Art of Self-Defense.

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Goofs

When Gemma and Tom are trying to leave that strange neighborhood with the car, Gemma is looking at their both cellphones. None of it have phone network. But they could have use the GPS instead, to find out where they are, and find a possible way out.

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Quotes

Gemma: What am I suppose to do with him?

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Connections

Featured in Half in the Bag: Quarantine Catch-up (part 2 of 2) (2020)

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Soundtracks

Rudy A Message To You
Written by Dandy Livingstone (as Robert Thompson)
Performed by Dandy Livingstone
Used by permission of Carlin Music Delaware, a Round Hill Music Company
Courtesy of Sanctuary Records Group Ltd., a BMG Company

User Reviews

Would have made a good short film

Unfortunately there's not enough substance here to fill up an entire feature film. There's A LOT of padding. For example the scene where they're listening to ska music in the car. It doesn't add anything much to the movie. It feels like the actors were told to just make up a dialogue on the spot.

For a movie of this kind to sustain our attention for a full hour and a half there needs to be more than just the initial concept. Unfortunatley there's not. There's no twist. There's no second act. There's a really interesting "nightmare"-type scene towards the end which feels for a moment like the movie's finally going somewhere. But then it dissipates and we're left with nothing much once more.

Why didn't the protagonists try and decipher the book that was delivered? Surely that was a vital clue? What caused their health to fail? Why didn't they try breaking into other houses on the street? I wanted these characters to fight to the death but they really went out with a wimper.

Could have been great.... but wasn't. Watch "the Platform" instead if you want surreal horror with a message.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

Ireland Belgium Denmark Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 March 2020 (USA)

Also Known As:

Vivarium

Filming Locations:

Liege, Belgium

Box Office

Budget:

$4,000,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$434,030

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lovely Productions, Copenhagen Film Fund, Creative Europe MEDIA

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Atmos

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1