And so we have yet another small release that definitely would have gone under my radar if new major releases weren’t so scarce right now. I actually don’t feel like it’s worth making that long of a review for Vivarium, because this is an easy movie to sell. Vivarium is one of those movies with a really strange concept, and so you can more or less make up your mind on whether or not this is worth your time just by hearing what it’s all about.

Basically, Vivarium is one of those “what the fuck is going on?” kind of movies. The movie centers around a couple, Tom and Gemma (played by Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots, respectively), who are looking to buy a house. Their search ends up taking them to a really weird salesman, who takes them to a newly developed neighborhood. This neighborhood consists of completely identical houses, which is weird enough on its own. But then when the salesman mysteriously disappears in the middle of the tour, Tom and Gemma find themselves in a labyrinth of identical houses. The mystery further unfolds when they find that it’s seemingly impossible to escape the neighborhood, that they’re the only people there, and that an infant has now been left on their doorstep.

Vivarium is undoubtedly a weird, wild ride. However, whether or not it’s a journey worth taking is entirely up to you. Like I said, my recommendation purely rides on whether or not the concept sounds interesting to you. If it does, then I do recommend giving it a shot. I see that it’s gotten a lot of bad reviews, but I actually liked it personally. I don’t think this is a groundbreaking, must-see movie by any means, but it’s wild enough that it had my attention the entire time, and I think some really interesting, scary things happen throughout the movie. The main complaint I really have is just that the ending felt unsatisfying, which I recognize can ruin the experience for a lot of people. I don’t really have a desire to watch this ever again, but I am glad that I watched it once. Even though I liked it, I can’t guarantee others will because of how far out there it is, so my final recommendation is to just give it a shot if it sounds like it might be up your alley.

3.5/5