Social experiments are sometimes the most innocuous and harmless things that happen around and to us as humans. We never see or are aware of even half of the things that someone was paid to test on us as a population. However, when the experiment is revealed to those within these hidden parameters, the reaction is usually one of shock and sometimes disgust. The Belko Experiment is much like this, but the data collected is at a serious cost.
Belko Industries has set up an office in Bogotá, Colombia, and in this building, employees go about their day much like any other office building in the world. People socialize with each other, they make coffee, answer phones, and just generally conduct business in a business-like way. A new employee (Dany) is brought into HR for her first day at work to sign papers and shown her new office. The HR rep asks if she had been to the doctor to have her “tracker” installed in the back of her head. She questions the validity of this and is told that with all the kidnappings in Columbia, it’s a precaution so that they can find her should something go wrong.
Hours into a normal work day, like any other, an announcement is made over the loudspeaker that will change the course of every employee’s life in the building. A disembodied voice announces that there are eighty employees currently in the building and that of those eighty, two of them need to be murdered within thirty minutes. If they do not comply with this order, there will be “repercussions”. Naturally, the employees don’t find this funny, but all of them wish to leave the office, which is something that the person behind the voice will not allow them to do. As one employee tries to run for the door, metal shutters cover the entrance, as well as all other exits, and the windows. This is only the beginning of the experiment, and it gets much worse from there.
The Belko Experiment is much better than I actually anticipated it being. We as a society like to think that when we are faced with terrible choices or situations we will take the moral high ground and do what is right. Sadly, this is simply not something that everyone has the moral willpower to do. Sadly we have seen time and time again that some people are easily swayed to do what is needed to survive, even though it flies in the face of morality. The number of movies that present this situation in various ways is probably innumerable. However, of all the ones that I have seen, none of them have solicited actual emotion from me like The Belko Experiment.
Think of this movie as a sort of controlled Lord of the Flies situation. The adults with the conch (in this case higher up the managerial ladder) are the ones that try to take control of the situation. The other adults aren’t allowed to speak and are just fodder for the VIPs to do what they please. This creates scenarios, for me at least, when one of the VIPs is killed by an “underling”, I was almost literally cheering for him to be put down. It was a weird feeling. It’s like watching a horror movie where the menacing killer is finally caught and brought down by one of his would-be victims. Only this time it was some asshole in a tie that had no moral compass. Sadly I don’t think that people really wanted to care about The Belko Experiment. I don’t really know why. It has a great cast (fucking Michael Rooker, yo!) and was by James Gunn, the guy that directed the Guardians movies. It’s a “horror” movie for sure but has some great dark humor. Personally, I think it was great and deserves better than it got. If you find it cheap to rent or buy, check it out.
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