Horror Movie Review: Oxygen (2021)

Oxygen (French: Oxygène) is a 2021 French-language science fiction thriller film directed and produced by Alexandre Aja, from a screenplay by Christie LeBlanc. As part of an American-French co-production, it stars Mélanie Laurent, Mathieu Amalric and Malik Zidi. The film was released by Netflix on May 12, 2021.

A young woman awakens in an airtight medical cryogenic unit, and discovers that she is trapped and that the unit’s oxygen levels are falling rapidly. Suffering from memory loss, she does not remember who she is or how she got there. She is assisted by an advanced A.I. named MILO, but it refuses to open the cryo unit without an administrator code.

Using MILO, she is able to transmit outside the pod and contact emergency services. She provides them with the cryo unit’s model and serial number, which are printed on the interior. Upon contacting the manufacturer they are told the unit was destroyed three years prior. Unable to recall her memories, she looks for clues about her past by searching for pictures and articles through the AI computer and finds her name, Elizabeth Hansen. She realizes she is a cryogenic doctor. Liz finds her husband, Léo Ferguson, and his contact number by accessing her social media, but when she calls his number a woman answers. She tells the woman that she is Léo’s wife and demands to speak to him. The woman seems confused and hangs up.

As the oxygen level continues to fall, she begins hallucinating and tries to open the pod, only to be electrocuted. She then receives a call back from the police but suspects they are hiding something from her, and disconnects. The unknown woman she called earlier rings and tells her that her husband is dead. She also gives her the administrator code to open the pod, but tells her she cannot open the pod or she will die.

What is going on? Can Liz figure it out before it’s too late? Watch and find out.

Oxygen is a claustrophics and conspiracy theorists nightmare all wrapped up in one. A fascinating concept and although the twist is not earth shattering – because it could really only be a handful of things – it was cool nonetheless. Laurent’s performance is fantastic and believable, as are the effects.

I found MILO (the AI) interesting because of how unhelpful he was. It was very realistic. He only answered very specific questions and didn’t offer up any extra information. He isn’t there to save her life, he’s just a computer and wouldn’t have been interacting with her at all if the pod had worked properly.

I always enjoy films that use one set but Oxygen was especially good because the set was so small and compact. It was well shot and designed. It was easy to become immersed in Liz’s situation. As I said above, the effects are believable. I found myself cringing away at some scenes because no matter how much horror I watch, needles will always make my skin crawl!

Overall, a fantastic confined, sci fi horror movie. Although, I’m never a fan of happy endings but situations such as these can only end one way due to the characters desperate survival throughout.