Horror Movie Review: Containment (2015)

Containment is a British horror that sees a group of residents quarantined inside a tower block suddenly. They don’t know why & any information they are able to get is vague & confusing. What they do know though is that a lot of people in hazmat suits are outside & leaving is not an option.

Containment is unfortunately a bit of a mess. A mess of vague plot points, frustrating characters & an unsatisfactory ending. Its British grittiness just doesn’t do much to excite or hold the interest. It’s all a bit ‘been here, seen it, got the random infection t-shirt’ before.

A lot of Containment’s issues relate to the lack of interesting characters. A big problem considering this is a movie that relies on them to hold it together. We have the lead, Mark (played by Lee Ross) who is just your everyday man, desperate to get to his child & wife outside. Although it is suggested early on that they’ve spilt up, that is about as much as you get regarding Mark & it hardly makes you want to cheer him on.

Then we have Andrew Leung as Sergei, an angry & bitter man who feels he’s owed something & not willing to wait. His character is the cause of a lot of the major conflicts that do occur but he never convinces as an actual threat.

Things do improve slightly when the residents trapped get hold of someone in a hazmat suit & hold them hostage. Unfortunately this just leads to lots more talking & shouting. Considering how little answers there are by time the credits roll, there sure is a lot of talking/angry exchanges.

The film does manage to create some tension. This when another group of residents get wind of the scientist being held hostage. Believing that she has a cure (some of them are getting sick) they become like wild animals desperate to get at her. This sequence is the highlight of a short movie. One that feels a lot longer because of how many times this idea has been done.

The acting is mostly solid throughout, not much to get excited about but hardly worthy of a complaint. It’s just a pity that this idea wasn’t better fleshed out & maybe not kept so vague. The ending is so flat that it actually harms the rest of the movie. It’s just a ‘wait, that’s it?’ moment.

[amazon_link asins=’B01JGJIRA0,B01544O9NK,B000HC2LV2,B077G2SWCS’ template=’UseThisOne’ store=’g0e5b-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’9e3500e5-d9f8-11e7-ad6a-a391704fa80c’]