This is one of the most unique and bizarre films I have seen in months, probably in years. It is a Spanish production available on Netflix for older teen and adult audiences. The story takes place in a very bizarre place, it is like an underground building where each floor is super simple, it has 2 beds and some bathroom structures. There is a huge hole in the middle of each floor like the one in elevators but with no doors, so if people aren't careful they can fall down this hole and die.
Why is there a hole in the middle you might ask yourself, well because you see, in this place the people are trapped, there are no doors for them to go out and live free. How come they don't die from hunger? Here is the sci-fi element, that hole is used by some kind of levitating table, maybe it uses magnets but this isn't explained, this table provides the food these people eat. The macabre part is that food is replenished daily at floor # 0, which means the ground floor at the top, each day it goes down full of food. The table parks itself on each floor for a couple of minutes and then it goes down to the next floor.
There are countless floors deep in the ground, too many to count, each month the people inside change floor randomly, sometimes they will be on one of the first floors, other times they will be down deep. How do you think humans will behave themselves under these bizarre conditions? What will their eating habits be like?
This is a shocking macabre experiment about human nature, it reminded me of movies about the Stanford prison experiment but with the nice sci-fi twist that was certainly a good addition. It kept me glued to the screen for the entire time, interested in seeing how the characters evolved as time passed.
The entire film is about one guy that just arrived in this place, and his "roommate". It is a dark film no doubt about that, you will see people acting in a very primitive way, violence and blood, cruelty, psychological deterioration, despair, and more... There is no civility in here, in fact, having civility under these conditions is self-defeating. The same goes for solidarity or empathy. This is a pessimist allegory of any type of society throughout history, and it is beautifully done.
Even though the performances were all good the plot is the real star here though. This is the type of story that can work with any normal actor because everything interesting is in the setting, the context, and the plot. The CGI for the sci-fi part is good too.
There is just 1 thing I didn't like and it is the abrupt ending. I mean, I was expecting more information about this place, the ending is up to the interpretation of the viewer which doesn't surprise given the fact this is an allegory, but I think they could have finished the plot in a more direct way.
If you like psychological films, and experiments like the one I mentioned before (Stanford) then you will surely enjoy this movie, in fact, it is a must-watch. People that don't enjoy watching violence and that type of thing might have to think twice before watching this movie. However, the violence is just one unavoidable aspect of this film, the main point is the allegory and the interesting dynamic the sci-fi element allows.
The best
- Intriguing place. I wonder who built it.
- Interesting story and macabre social experiment that rewards the viewer.
- Thoughtful allegory that everyone will quickly understand.
The worst
- The ending was very abrupt. I wanted to know much more about the story of this macabre place.
More information: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/619264-el-hoyo Review: AAA In numbers: 8/10