Vivarium

Vivarium

Starring:

Imogen Poots, and Jesse Eisenberg

Vertigo Releasing

2020

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

Live Journal

As I watched Vivarium, I recorded a live journal of my thoughts. No spoilers, just my opinion as I watched:

After getting through fifty opening credits, the movie begins. With a very unnerving opening scene, this movie is off to a good start. I enjoy how everything except the main characters feels ominous. Really love the setting. The houses look real and the identical look is terrifying! Rows and rows of awfully painted homes. Jonathan Aris, who plays the realtor, really plays a creepy guy well. It’s like a creepy butler meets a very chipper salesman. He keeps getting weirder and weirder! With this concept, I’m not sure how they’re going to keep it going for almost an hour and a half. The confusion is tense. Definitely eerie. Fast paced. Twenty-five minutes in and I like it!

Bruh, this movie is much more than the description said! I really can’t handle this new character XD At this point, an hour and four minutes in, I really don’t know what’s going on but I’m enjoying the ride. I don’t know what I just watched, but wow.

Rating:

Acting is an obvious 10/10  for me because Imogeen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg bring it all to the table and Senan Jennings and Eanna Hardwicke *really* gave me the creeps! I gave 7/10 on story as the ending may be unsatisfactory to some. Sadly, I just wanted more story! I really with the movie was longer so I could know why these events occurred. Direction was 10/10 for: great CGI; awesome camera angles; beautiful lighting. Pretty much just a perfect overall aesthetic in my opinion.

Review:

Absurd. Mystifying. And great acting. Directed by Lorcan Finnegan, Vivarium lives up to its strange name. From the first scene, I was hooked. With beautiful CGI, that really brings forth the style and essence of the story, and unexpected camera angles, this movie is quite pleasing to the eye. On top of that, my mind was racing the entire movie as I was fully immersed in this confusing and tragic story. Instantly I connected with the main characters and despised the obvious antagonist. Watching this movie, I could have been one of the main characters, it’s so immersive! These actors portray emotion clearly and realistically. The stress of living through this sort of situation (no spoilers!) was played so well and made sense.

I feel one of the themes of the story is, “It’s so perfect that it’s imperfect.” You’ll understand when you watch it! It kept me on my toes for sure and it takes a lot for something to catch my attention! The entire time I was trying to guess what was going to happen and every time I was wrong. So, all in all, I loved this movie. If you’re looking for a movie with major creep factor, this is it.

In short: best movie I’ve watched in a long time.

Alyanna Poe

A horror author from Northern California :)