The Belko Experiment, James Gunn and director Greg McLean’s office space thriller, imagines a scenario in which a group of 80 employees housed up in a nondescript office building become the hapless subjects of a sick, twisted game, one that seeds the beginning of a kill-or-be-killed bloodbath. And you thought your day was bad.
Once the company is placed under lockdown, John Gallagher Jr., Adria Arjona and the other personnel trapped within the high-rise corporate building are left with little choice but to partake in The Belko Experiment, and it’s at this point that McLean’s nail-biting thrill ride descends into full-blown anarchy.
Featuring a script penned by Gunn, this is a jet-black psychological horror, one that not only breeds bloodshed and violence, but also pushes its lead characters to the absolute brink – so much so that they’re within touching distance of becoming primitive, bloodthirsty animals. Tony Goldyn, John C. McGinley, David Dastmalchian and Gregg Henry also star, along with Guardians of the Galaxy duo Michael Rooker and Sean Gunn.
It’s Office Space meets Battle Royale, according to WGTC’s own Matt Donato, and The Belko Experiment will begin in earnest when Greg McLean’s white-knuckle ride hits US theaters on March 17.
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.
