Based on its high concept, splashy visuals, and eye-popping visual extravagance, watching either the trailer for – or 2020 sci-fi thriller Coma in its entirety – would lead you to believe that it was at the very least a moderately expensive production.
After all, the story of an architect waking up in a world that resembles his reality but isn’t quite the same required plenty of imagination to bring to life, especially when this particular plane of existence is based on the memories of those who reside within. And yet, co-writer and director Nikita Argunov’s mind-bending genre film only cost $4 million to produce.
The Inception comparisons are there for all to see, and they’re not exactly far-fetched, but to say Coma isn’t a patch on Christopher Nolan’s instant classic would be stating the obvious when the bar has already been set so high for effects-driven tales that turn cities upside down and inside out through the imagination of a central character.
That being said, Coma has at least woken up and chosen chaos on streaming this week, with FlixPatrol naming it as one of the most-watched features on iTunes. Going in expecting Inception-lite is probably the best way to approach it, because there are plenty of shortcomings on both a narrative and structural level, but there’s still plenty to admire when you consider it was cobbled together for what’s effectively pennies on a Hollywood film of comparable scale.
If a sci-fi original has enough of a hook to draw ’em in, then that’s exactly what it’ll do on-demand, with Coma now wide awake and raring to go.