THE BELKO EXPERIMENT (2016)

3/13/18 - The Belko Experiment (2016) - 2/10

It is rare that I find a movie so devoid of fun or worth, but Belko is an experiment that succeeds at being exactly that bad. It is a gorily gross failure that doesn’t shock or find a schlocky fun in the insanity. Rather, it revels in its distasteful murders, serving no master but its own self-indulgence and grotesque nihilism. It lacks ingenuity, wit, commentary, distinct skill, or clear purpose. It is abhorrent in every way, all the while taking itself completely seriously as to only leave the cored husk of revulsion and despair - not for the characters or the cruelty of man, but for the viewer having submitted themselves to this uninteresting and relentlessly futile death porn.

Perhaps the complete waste of acting talent, the misguided whisper of some larger societal critique, or the millions flung at this failure might have been palatable if it was ever, for more than a minute, enjoyable in any sense of the cinematic arts. It is not made without talent or effort, but it did not work… The more I think about it, the more dissatisfied I am. It seems to exist only to provide faces of death fodder and that is not enough for my dollars, my time, and certainly not my enjoyment. I am glad the writer and director saw or read Battle Royale, loved it, and thought, “What if it was in an office?”, but they completely missed the point and forgot to make it interesting or worthy.