Say this for The Platform 2: it will get proper to it. With out a lot of a recap of its predecessor – a sci-fi horror parable that grew to become a Netflix hit a number of years again – characters are debating philosophies of regulation and economics inside 10 minutes. By the 40-minute mark, a significant character has already dedicated self-immolation. It’s remarkably fast-paced for a film set in a sequence of unadorned rooms that make up an infinite vertical jail.

The workings of this jail had been detailed within the first movie, and are straightforward sufficient to choose up this time round, even with out a lot newbie-friendly exposition: prisoners, who can choose into the construction known as the Pit for punishment or in another sort of trade, are randomly assigned a unique degree every month, normally shared with one other prisoner. As soon as a day, a cellular platform descends from the highest (degree 0) to the underside (someplace within the 300s, it’s thought), filled with a succulent number of meals, lingering for a couple of minutes on every flooring. (Every prisoner will get to choose one favourite merchandise to be included.) Prisoners on the high can, in the event that they so select, selfishly avail themselves of no matter they need inside the time restrict. If (when) they do, greed begets extra greed, inevitably leaving little to nothing for the poor, determined souls on the underside. After all, everybody’s fortunes can change on a month-to-month foundation; somebody on high might simply be shunted all the way down to the underside, and vice versa. These fixed modifications ought to encourage empathy; largely, they encourage panic and extra virtually minded selfishness. In different phrases: eat up now, as a result of who is aware of the place you’ll be subsequent month.

Because the sequel begins, the prisoners have organized, placing their very own unofficial however exacting guidelines into place: every prisoner should solely eat the meals they particularly requested, and nothing extra, except another person agrees to a commerce. If everybody abides by this, theoretically nobody will go hungry. Simpler mentioned than completed, in fact; all it takes is for one particular person to eat another person’s pizza, unhealthy roommate-style, to throw issues out of steadiness. That’s the exact scenario that Zamiatin (Hovik Keuchkerian) encounters on his first day within the Pit. A grim-looking man who walks round shirtless and shaves each a part of his physique that he can attain, presenting as a tough-guy vulgarian, Zamiatin calls for swift justice. His bunkmate, Perempuan (Milena Smit), in the meantime, urges warning. Surprisingly, she does get by means of to him, they usually turn into real associates whilst different clashes ripple by means of the varied ranges. Quickly the pair finds themselves embroiled in a battle between a self-designated “anointed one” who insists on fundamentalist enforcement of the principles (dictating, for instance, that if a prisoner dies, their meals have to be discarded, not redistributed) and those that agitate for larger “freedom” (even though none of them are actually free in any respect).

Their place inside this battle modifications so rapidly the film would possibly induce whiplash. Even the film’s central metaphor retains shifting; at instances, it takes goal on the questionable economics of capitalism, the questionable feasibility of true social or financial equality, the fervor of non secular true believers, and the nasty violence which may be inherent in human nature, amongst others. Returning director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia tears by means of all of those worthy topics in a chaotic, bloody scrum that features weaponized cannibalism, harrowingly nonsensical backstories and different manners of grotesquerie each visible and narrative.

The grindhouse thought experiments could be participating, and an indication that the film is extra excited by speculative fiction than in preaching towards a single particular theme. However the film rampages too rapidly and carelessly to actually dig into any of its characters; Perempuan emerges because the lead, and although Smit is okay within the position, the bottom beneath her retains shifting. Ultimately, the film skips forward to one thing extra novel: an eerie, green-lit sequence that brings each sci-fi and slow-building suspense again into the proceedings. (Even the ever-present blood splatter turns into extra poetic.) Then it barrels forward additional, right into a head-scratching ultimate stretch that doesn’t acquire any readability by persevering with on into the top credit. Gaztelu-Urrutia appears to be relating to his personal idea from degree 0, treating it as a frantic all-you-can-eat buffet which may be snatched away at any second.