![]() Apart from a few exceptions – a fellow prisoner, then something much worse – Weiss is our sole anchor through Meander’s increasingly surreal death-trap. While similar films often revolve around a group and piecemeal answers amid survival, Weiss‘ trial is largely a one-woman show, singularly propelled by intimate intense survival. Director Mathieu Turi assembles a taut succession of dangers that never relaxes its looming threat, where any stretch of killer tubing could unleash some new death-trap worse and more unnatural than the last. When focusing purely on enduring a series of traps, this is a viscerally suspenseful thrill-ride. The film excels at a primal minimalism: one woman, one unknown diabolical labyrinth and the moment-to-moment physicality of survival. Logic and suspension of disbelief are two factors that will need to be discarded for maximum enjoyment of Meander. Who’s controlling these crushing walls, who sending Lisa trap countdowns on her manacle, who were these other victims whose corpses litter the maze, who built these elaborate tunnels of flame jets or that acid bath? All those questions are nonentities that recede in favor of propulsive thrills. Reminiscent of Shinya Tsukamoto’s nightmarish Haze (including one grisly sequence that could be a direct homage), the film becomes an almost-abstracted series of traps. Her constrictive box opens into an even tighter pipe, and Meander begins its 90-minute onslaught of suffocating claustrophobia. ![]() With the protagonist waking up in a mysterious room, a clunky glowing manacle clamped to her wrist, Meander jarringly morphs from familiar reality to abstract mechanical hell. ![]() With its trap-filled tunnels, Meander feels similarly indebted to Cube but aims for a visceral pared-back approach, focusing on relentless survival and vague answers.Īn incongruous opening introduces Gaia Weiss‘ Lisa, grieving the loss of her daughter only to find herself in the passenger seat of a possible serial killer…and then in an even more confounding situation. More recent works like The Platform and Escape Room continue to evolve the trappings of Natali’s satirical societal-microcosm survival film. Resident Evil would upgrade the opening razor-wire dicing to a laser corridor Saw slathered the puzzle-box mystery in rust, grime, and slasher gore. Meander was released in the United States earlier this month by Gravitas Ventures.Vincenzo Natali’s 1997 indie horror Cube casts a long shadow for a movie crafted for under a million dollars and with a single set. WTFilms co-produced, and the company's Gregory Chambet acknowledged that Meander's "contained concept" is reminiscent of the 1997 film Cube, which "to this day has rarely been equaled". Meander was produced by Fulltime Studio's Eric Gendarme, Thomas Lubeau, Marc Olla and Jordan Sarralie, with Cinefrance Studios' Sandra Karim, Julien Deris, and David Gauquie. Weiss is joined in the cast by Peter Franzen (who also played a role on Vikings) as "a man with mysterious intentions". The only reason to know why is to survive every death trap on your way. Every eight minutes, you need to move forward or die. Here's an alternative synopsis that wants the reader to imagine themselves in the woman's place: There are also some strange creatures that are a danger to the woman. Her only option is to keep moving forward, but it is not clear how far she can get.Īs the clip and trailer give away, there are more than just deadly traps in this maze of tubes. Starring Gaia Weiss of Vikings and The Legend of Hercules (the one that had Kellan Lutz as Hercules), Meander followsĪ woman who wakes up in a labyrinth of strange tubes full of deadly traps. The clip is followed by the film's trailer. But just in case you haven't gotten to Meander yet, today we're sharing a clip from the movie that you can check out in the embed above. You may have already seen writer/director Mathieu Turi's sci-fi thriller Meander, as the movie is available on VOD and can be rented or purchased on Amazon Prime Video at THIS LINK.
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