On the surface, the setup for The Belko Experiment is little more than an excuse for some quick cheap thrills and you'd be pretty much right. That statement may seem pointless; yet, its really the first (and possibly only) step to realizing whether or not you're going to like this movie. Well, there's that and if you're able/willing to get over the fact that the premise isn't entirely original. That critic quote you've been seeing calling this flick "OFFICE SPACE meets BATTLE ROYALE" might as well be a back handed compliment.
Acting-wise, this isn't anything special. John Gallagher Jr. manages to do an admirable job of keeping his head above water (or would it be blood?) amongst all the insanity. Tony Goldwyn is remarkably despicable as what might be the worst boss in existence. Even Sean Gunn is a lot of fun as the smartest person in the entire building, which is especially funny when you see how his character introduced.
Underneath all the carnage, there is some clever satire about the corporate machine and the dark side of human nature. Granted, the subtextual nature of that previously mentioned satire doesn't elevate this stuff to the level of the original RoboCop*; but, its enough to make sure the chaos isn't entirely mindless.
Speaking of the violence, oh me oh my is this film creative with its splatter. Almost everything under the sun is used as a weapon: tables, tape dispensers, staplers, pens, you name it. Alongside all of that and some idiosyncratic covers of famous songs, there's a wicked sense of humor that keeps it from getting outright miserable or too abrasive.
Just imagine someone remaking Office Space with every character being about as mentally unhinged as D-FENS from Falling Down and buckets upon buckets of blood being splattered all over the place, all capped off with a seriously sick sense of humor. The Belko Experiment certainly isn't for everyone; but, I got a kick out of it. Plus, if you want a lean, mean bit of modern day exploitation cinema, you can do a lot worse than this.
THE BELKO EXPERIMENT gets a...
BLOODY GOOD TIME out of TEN
*Incidentally, its kind of great to know that old production companies like Orion Pictures are coming back. :)
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