The innate beauty of Netflix lies in its vast online archives of binge-worthy entertainment. Just sit back, click a few buttons and boom, your next viewing experience is ready and waiting.
And in this digitized world of online streaming, it doesn’t take long for something to become an overnight success. Think of the Netflix phenom Stranger Things or Sex Education – two remarkably well-crafted TV shows that blew up thanks, in part, to word of mouth.
Fast forward to March 2020, and it seems we may have our next viral hit in the form of The Platform, a Spanish horror-thriller set in a dark, dystopian future where the world’s criminals are locked away in vertical prisons. In our review, we awarded Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s grim and gory picture with four stars, deeming it to be a “multi-tiered assembly of tension, terror and terrible imaginings that, in cake form, would be worth centerpiece window placement in any professional pâtisserie.”
And sure enough, those Netflix subscribers who have seen the film are already raving about it on social media. Cue the overnight sensation…
https://twitter.com/steph_bonchi/status/1241108348499623936
Holy shit! This movie makes you rethink about food and also humanity in general. Crazy plot which keeps up the momentum till the end. Completely disturbing and insanely gory. Spain seems to be coming up with insanely good movies nowadays! #ThePlatformNetflix pic.twitter.com/jaARDLieuL
— Teja Navalkar (@tejanavalkar) March 21, 2020
https://twitter.com/kathdeclaw/status/1241624195080941570
And three more reactions, just for good measure:
https://twitter.com/ryans_den/status/1241294551496581120
https://twitter.com/jacquemusoul/status/1242644917697933312
#ThePlatform on Netflix is a stunning film on class inequality and the horrors of food shortage that could turn humans into zombies. ‘The Platform’ predicts the end of humanity when nothing actually matters if you have no balanced solidarity. It’s a post-apocalyptic masterpiece. pic.twitter.com/hM0DN4Evh7
— Pallav Gogoi (@pallav_) March 21, 2020
With a quarter of the world’s population now on lockdown due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, The Platform could not be more timely. Its novel concept drills directly into humanity’s darker tenets to explore our propensity for greed and consumption, even if it comes at the expense of others.
At the time of writing, it’s currently perched at 4th place on Netflix’s Top 10 list, which isn’t all that surprising given viewers have been watching more and more disaster films to experience some form of escapism. So don’t be too surprised if The Platform catches fire and becomes the hot new Netflix movie that everyone’s talking (and indeed tweeting) about over the coming days.
