Office Space may be the definitive cinematic parody of workaday corporate life--which is why I can’t stand hearing people describe The Belko Experiment as a cross between Mike Judge's 1999 cult hit and Battle Royale, a Japanese thriller about murderous high school students. The characters in James Gunn’s screenplay are neither archetypes nor cartoons. They are mostly likable and certainly relatable lower- and middle-income employees who’ve been cruelly thrust into an impossible situation. Like Battle Royale, Belko takes place in a remote location, and centers on eighty office workers forced to kill each other for eight hours, lest they suffer terrible fates at the hands of their unseen captors. The exploding heads, mass shootings, and geyser-like stab wounds are chilling, not thrilling. They heighten an increasingly bleak set of moral quandaries that may just leave you questioning your faith in yourself, your friends, and the company that signs your paychecks.
Listen to Kicking the Seat Podcast #202 to hear Ian and Keeping it Reel's David Fowlie go bonkers for Belko!