Take the fundamental story beats of The Hunger Games or, perhaps more appropriately, Battle Royale and thrust them into an office setting and you’ll have a close approximation of The Belko Experiment, James Gunn and director Greg McLean’s (Wolf Creek) intense thriller that sees a normal day at the office unfold into a full-blown bloodbath.
Hailing from Gunn’s bustling Facebook feed, the teaser above is designed as more of an appetizer than anything else, as we see a typical tower block undergo some form of lockdown, before the building’s PA system outlines a truly nightmarish scenario: employees must kill a select number of their co-workers, otherwise they’ll be bumped off themselves. Hoping the odds are ever in their favor are John Gallager Jr., Tony Goldyn, John C. McGinley, David Dastmalchian and Gregg Henry, along with Guardians of the Galaxy duo Michael Rooker and Sean Gunn.
At only 17 seconds in length – 14 of which contain actual footage – we’ll reserve judgement until the full trailer for The Belko Experiment is unleashed on November 30, and you can readily expect us to have full coverage for you on Wednesday.
The Belko Experiment debuts on March 17, 2017. For more on McLean and James Gunn’s volatile genre mash-up, look no further than our official review from TIFF.
It at first seems to be an ordinary morning on the job for a group of Americans working for a not-for-profit in a modern office building in Colombia. After noticing that their Colombian colleagues have not arrived for work, office worker Mike (John Gallagher, Jr.) spots some unfamiliar security guards entering a large hangar nearby. Moments later, an icy voice comes over the building’s PA system and calmly explains that the employees must kill a certain number of their co-workers — if not, they will be killed themselves. While the boss (Tony Goldwyn) tries to calm the troops, Mike belatedly realizes that something truly sinister is going on — and when metal doors come sliding down on all the building’s exits and windows, it becomes clear that friends and colleagues are now suddenly enemies in a bloody and brutal battle to the death.
