Based on the dystopian short story, “Escape from Spiderhead,” by George Saunders, first published in The New Yorker, the story follows inmates in a luxurious prison who participate in experiments involving mind-altering drugs. The film received mixed reviews from critics, and rightfully so. Viewers are going to either love this movie or dislike the movie. Personally, I found it enjoyable and a daring concept for Netflix to produce.
Spiderhead is a state-of-the-art penitentiary experimenting with the effects of research chemicals. The test subjects, technically prisoners of the state, are volunteers for the project aiming to reduce their sentence time. The program is overseen by the sympathetic and hospitable Steve Abnesti, along with his assistant Mark. The prisoners have their own rooms, do chores, and are free to roam without guard supervision. The subjects go through daily test runs of various drugs, all of which alter their emotions and their perceptions of their surroundings.
Inmate Jeff, still reeling from having killed his friend whilst drunk driving, is given N-40, a "love drug", which distorts his senses and drives him to have sex with two of his fellow inmates. Steve asks him to choose which one of them to give Darkenfloxx, a drug that induces intense fear and psychological pain. He declines to choose, claiming he feels nothing in particular for either one of them after the effects of the love drug had worn off.
Chris Hemsworth plays a role that you either love or hate, and proves he is more than capable of handling a role with diverse emotion and not just a hammer-wielding Norse god as he has in past years.
The film has a happy ending (or not-so-happy ending, depending on how you look at it) and during the closing voice-over, we are reminded that self-forgiveness has to be worked on and chosen, rather than being easily curable.
I love science-fiction but find motion-pictures oftentimes cannot provide more beyond the concept. Films earlier this year such as Lightyear and Everything, Everywhere, All at Once had a fascinating concept but the execution was just not there. In Spiderhead, the concept was only unraveled as we watched various character interact against their will in a science experiment. From a dramatic standpoint, whether you enjoy stage drama or television anthologies, this is one of the better ones worth watching this year.
