A lot of people have such intense feelings of claustrophobia that they can’t even watch a movie that deals almost entirely with confined spaces, meaning that even the most hardened sci-fi aficionados will actively be missing out on Meander, one of the most unsung genre gems to emerge in the last couple of years.
Writer and director Mathieu Turi’s nail-biting survival thriller laced with futuristic trappings can broadly be described as a one-person Cube, finding Gaia Weiss’ Lisa waking up in a rodent-esque tube with no idea how she got there after accepting a car ride from a mysterious handsome stranger.
There’s a device on her wrist with a ticking clock, which quickly reveals itself to be a timer signaling that a different section of her narrow prison will be sent up in flames. Left with no other option than to crawl through the harrowing maze with no sign of escape, our intrepid hero must face up to her own past to look towards the future and her sole means of escape.
A 77 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and 80 percent user rating underlines just how much praise was deservedly showered upon Meander, but it never came close to capturing enough attention, which is a crying shame given the sky-high premise and phenomenal execution. Thankfully, streaming subscribers have managed to bring it back from the brink, with FlixPatrol naming it as one of the 20 most-watched films on Starz, but you need to be made of strong stuff to get through all 90 ferocious minutes.
