A Couple is Stuck in a New Community, and Leaving Isn’t an Option

Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg in "Vivarium"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

Movie characters transitioning into a new home is always a promising story to tell, especially if it’s in the horror genre.  With films like “Rosemary’s Baby,” “The Amityville Horror,” “Poltergeist,” and “The Conjuring,” we have the mysteriousness of going into a new dwelling mixed with the uneasiness of being in new surroundings, and all of this offers a chance for some memorable chills.

Director Lorcan Finnegan brings us our latest new-home-nightmare film, “Vivarium,” a strange, gripping, and innovative sci-fi thriller that has you descend into a sense of entrapment from which there doesn’t seem to be any chance of escaping.

Gemma (Imogen Poots) and Tom (Jesse Eisenberg) are looking to buy a new home.  When they are invited by a peculiar real estate agent (Jonathan Aris) to check out a new housing development called Yonder, they visit one of the units, but are soon abandoned.  Realizing that they’re stuck in Yonder, Gemma and Tom attempt find a way out as their sanity is tested by increasingly bizarre events.

Poots and Eisenberg, who appeared together last year in Riley Stearns dark-comedy thriller, “The Art of Self-Defense,” bring back their terrific chemistry to present a couple who have to avoid reaching their breaking point.  Their intense performances, whether they’re trying to get through their uncertainty or beginning to lose their minds, they bring the movie alive with the desperation that starts to make their lives crumble.  With the cast being so limited, it’s pretty much up to Poots and Eisenberg to carry the movie, and their talents show that they are more than capable of doing so.  All of the screen time that they share helps us experience the growing trauma that’s overtaking their lives, keeping us invested in the dangerous events that befall them.

The screenplay by Garrett Shanley (who wrote Finnegan’s first feature film, “Without Name”) could have used a tad more work on the ending, as it concludes a little to quickly, but the story still manages to construct a disturbing scenario that doesn’t leave you wanting for unpredictability.  The sequences that he writes slowly build the peril that Gemma and Tom experience, making you nervous as you wonder what twisted ideas Shanley has in store for you.  It’s an inventive premise that shows how much you can do with a small cast and one primary setting, and Shanley’s story is pretty much guaranteed to unsettle several times.

Finnegan manages to bring some level of anxiety to every scene, which is helped by the production design that’s suffocating in the sense of sameness that you see throughout the housing development.  He never fails to emphasize the close quarters that the characters share, as well as the deserted look of the streets throughout Yonder, making sure that we see how alone Gemma and Tom feel.  Finnegan evokes the creepiness of the scenario in ways that are impactful, but refrain from being showy, which presents a confidence in his abilities as a rising director.

In a movie about a house hunt that turns sinister, “Vivarium” will have you knocking on its door to see how it unfolds.

Grade: A-