Meander - Survival Instinct

Ok, so when the movie started out i thought it was going to be pretty good, i always liked mystery movies where someone wakes up in an unknown location and has to solve mysteries and puzzles to get out. To the films credit it had a lot of good set work and cinematography, but the main issue with it is how it gradually falls apart the longer it goes on. Its pretty clear that the writers were just making up stuff as they went along, apparent by how everything that happens in it gets progressively weirder and weirder, to the point where it gets completely nonsensical and all-over-the-place by the end. Theres also a couple conveniences in the script, theres several moments in the film where the main character should very well die but just... doesnt, because the plot needs her alive. Also this movie seems to have a similar problem with the movie "circle" and "cadaver" where it doesnt really have any progression or narrative, it just keeps going on and on without accomplishing anything narritive-wise until it hits its runtime. The majority of this movie is just watching a girl crawl through tubes and avoid traps, we didnt really learn much about what was happening until the very end, and until then it just never progresses anything.

Now despite everything ive said about this movie i would still recommend it if youre into the kind of genre, because even though the plot kinda sucks, everything else is pertty good, there were some pretty good puzzles and clever moments in the game itself, just dont expect a very well written plot.

This movie wants to be several things at once but sadly fails at all of them. It starts as thriller but it's not. Continues as Cube-type horror, but it's not. Finishes as metaphysical allegory with a sprinkles of sci fi, but it's not that either.

The visual at the end was nice. Other than that, I'm not sure what I actually watched.

Lisa (Gaia Weiss) is alone in the middle of nowhere. A vehicle stops. She reluctantly gets a ride from the creepy stranger. She gets knocked out and wakes up in a futuristic tunnel maze.

This really does meander. The basic premise is very Cube-esque with less people. Quite frankly, she's alone most of the time. The maze does not engender any mystery like the room numbers in Cube. It becomes a series of limited thrills as she crawl around and around. There are a few interesting ideas but the main story has no juice. It's really just watching this lady crawl around in the tunnels for an hour. Fast forward is very useful in this one.

Crawl and crawl and crawl

A new French sci-fi mystery where a woman is caught in a series of tunnel with multiple traps.

The movie started out slow, and this really requires some patience before things started to pick up. Honestly, the traps were not too scary like in similar movies. Then, when the twist started, it wasn't too surprising because this was done countless times before. The development of the main character was again, pretty typical, and was supposed to tie to the story. However, it really didn't make a lot of sense and felt cheesy.

There were still things that worked in the movie. Even though the progression was slow, there were still intense scenes that kept me on the edge. The clean camera work and some gores elevated the horror aspect and helped with the scenes.

Overall, it's a mystery that is done better before. 5.5/10.

People on here saying its horrible are full of poop. Yup it definitely draws inspiration from the cube but its totally different in many ways. Its weird and creepy af. Almost didn't watch because of all the negative reviews but I'm glad I did. I was entertained and yelling at my TV the whole time. The claustrophobia aspect alone was enough to terrify me lol. Bottom line it was a decent flick.