Meander (2020 film)

Category: Sci-fi psychological action/horror

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Imagine Cube with a lot less blood and gore, set in a series of pipes instead of rotating squares, and horror of all horrors - the people speak French. Welcome to the sci-fi action/horror Meander. 

But yeah, this movie clearly takes a lot of queues from Cube - someone wakes up in a weird place, they're in a uniform and they are forced to pass a series of deadly physical and psychological challenges as they discover more about their new environment. The comparison to Cube shouldn't be seen as a bad thing - there's nothing wrong with paying homage to a classic! It's just that any horror buff will recognise the inspiration almost right away.

The basic plot is as such: a woman still mourning the death of her daughter wakes up trapped in a booby-trapped maze made of pipes (and not cubes) after being in a car with a serial-killer, and with a bit of luck, ingenuity and the will to carry on, the reality of the situation she is in is made more apparent. That's all I will say without spoiling the ending - not that there's much to the plot, but the gradual progression of Lisa's encounters with that weird skull thing and the story behind her hallucinations actually make the plot worth not spoiling.

But a couple of questions:

One: how did this movie make only $700'000 (as per IMDB)? Way worse movies have made a lot more money, and in Meander, the production values are evidently there (look at the gelatinised corpse and tell me that isn’t skilled prop-work!), the effects, the acting and the pacing are all really good! I found myself being carried along with Lisa, and thought this movie was deserving of a lot more box office success and love in general.

Two: how is a French horror movie so relatively bloodless and lacking in gore (save for a couple of scenes)? We're talking about the same industry that made films such as Irreversible, Martyrs and many other gruesome stomach-churners…

Star Rating: 3.75/5