Cercle

Some seemingly random people appear in a circular room, every now and then one of them is executed. They quickly realise there is a way to 'vote off' your fellow circle dwellers in a very terminal way.

It is not long before prejudices and biases start to arise. Someone notices more black people are getting zapped than white people. Coincidence? Some of these biases are played out very professionally with flair and drama, others are handled a bit clumsily leading to some very cringey dialogue.

This film lives and dies by how much you are prepared to invest into it.

If you think about the scenario logically, then a lot of the choices people make seem rash and rather stupid.

But if you can put yourself in the characters shoes, and imagine that you - staring wide eyed down the barrel of a gun - are about to be killed over some scum bag rapist, in reality wouldn't you want that extra two minutes of life over them - just on principle?

This is where the film needs to draw you in. The acting, lighting, effects and sound are all good enough. However, some of the characters aren't, forcing some of the actors into a corner they have to ham their way out off. Then the spell starts to crack.

If you can remove all distractions and try to engage your emotions and blot out the signals coming from the rational parts of your brain then this is very good for Netflix fodder.

I was fully prepared to have one of those stupid no answer endings. I was pleased to get a bit more than I expected.

This is a fairly simple movie, a bunch of people wake up in a strange room and are rapidly picked off one by one. However the kicker is that they get to vote off who dies next. I really enjoyed this, it felt like a reality show from hell.

The film gets going almost right away, there isn't really any build up or character development before people start dying. As the group gets smaller we slowly start to get to know some of the characters, but no one main character is ever really determined. I like that they did this, it made it so it was pretty unpredictable as to who would die next. The film is also pretty heavy on dialogue, I am pretty surprised that they were able to find a fairly unknown cast that was able to pull this off well. The majority of the characters are believable and deliver solid performances.

There are a few negatives that are worth mentioning though. One is that some of the kills were too random, it's pretty much like "Why would they randomly kill that person when they could have easily killed the person who is clearly giving them a reason to do so?" Not a huge complaint but just kind of took away from the film in my opinion. Also the ending was a bit stale, not so much to ruin the movie but wasn't exactly the payoff I was hoping for.

Overall this is a very entertaining film, it held my attention throughout and actually had me on the edge of my seat a few times. If you enjoyed films like Saw and Cube I would definitely suggest checking this out.

7/10

Held captive and faced with their imminent executions, fifty strangers are forced to choose the one person among them who deserves to live.

Before getting too far into the film, I was reminded of "12 Angry Men". Looking into it a bit more, it is not surprising to find that this was, in fact, the primary inspiration. Something of a modern take on how we judge other people.

As a horror or science fiction film, the material is pretty light. But as social commentary, the film is strong. A bit heavy-handed, maybe, or in some ways too obvious in its stereotypes, but still clever just the same. We are left to wonder if humanity was in such a situation, who would survive? (The film actually suggests an answer, but let us not get into the spoilers!)

So you've read the synopsis and want to see if this is something you might be interested in.

Have you ever seen, "The Man from Earth"? Did you like the movie? Where they talk and talk and show nothing characteristically typical of a Sci-Fi flik. Well, "Circles" does something similar with all the talking, except with strong horror undercurrents and themes that focus more on sociology and politics.

There is a similar "Cube" feeling, that confined atmosphere of death but "Circles" has a far better pace and manages to keep the intrigue all the way to the end with only ever using one room. admittedly I first viewed "Cube" well after its release and I find it so dated and difficult to stay awake through. It lulls me to sleep no matter what time of day. But I digress.

"Circles" could have fleshed out some of those intimate moments of the actors more thoroughly but I'm assuming budget effected time which meant that there were only a few takes. So boom. That one will just have to do.

Nonetheless I appreciate the themes this film shoots for. I enjoy a film that enrages me a little when portraying human nature as it systematically makes my brain wheel turn. Is this plausible, are we capable and would I really behave like that?

I don't think this a horror or sci-fi genre specific, rather more of a drama with the other two built in. I think if you enjoy a good drama but have gotten tired of the opaque sadness the genre likes to play in, then give this a shot. I think you'll have a good time wading through the tension.

In the end it was a great film where it simply holds a mirror up to the 2010's and says, "Take a look, what do you see? Wanna talk about it"

'Circle.' It's a pretty tight little film, basically filmed only in the one location for an hour and a half – the location being a completely pitch black room with fifty red spots on the floor. In each, stands a random stranger and every couple of minutes one of which gets zapped by – er – something and brutally killed before their body is dragged off into the gloom. Confused? How do you think the fifty people feel?! And that's that – fifty people turns to forty. Forty turns to thirty and so on. It's a tough sell and it's probably never going to be a mainstream hit (especially as about the most well-known face is Dexter's wife from the TV series of the same name). Anyway, I think it deserves a cult following as I'm sure it will find an audience out there somewhere.

Its simple premise and delivery kind of reminded me of other (rather fun films) such as The Human race and Cube. Yes, it's hardly action-packed. The fifty people can't even move off their little red spot on the floor – if they do, that nasty zapper comes back for them again and that's that for them. What you have is a kind of morality tale about what people would do in this situation. Would they vote to kill people they don't know just to save themselves, or would they try and save everyone? It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. I can see plenty of people finding it boring, or being annoyed at the ending (I won't say why – you'll have to check out the internet message boards!), but if you're in the mood for something a little different and without any major car chases or Marvel superheroes destroying entire cities then give this one a go. I found it on Netflix and was glad I did – definitely worth seeing if you're in the mood for something dark, talky and that will make you question what you'd do in this most of weird and extreme of situations.