Circle (2015)

Running Time: 87 minutes

Release Date: October 16, 2015

Review by: Stacey

 

A group of people stuck in a room or confined area with no recollection of how they got there and all faced with imminent death unless they follow a set of rules or vote, usually until one person is the victor/survivor.  That's a basic premise of more than a few films we've seen (Cube, Saw, Exam), and really, when you've seen one it's easy to say you've seen 'em all.  Circle takes all the familiarity of those films and adds a little bit of an interesting sci-fi touch.

 

  

50 people wake up in a dark room with no clear memory of how they got there and why.  Every two minutes or when someone breaks the "rules", one of them is killed and they quickly realize that they control, by votes, which person is the next to die.  Naturally, people start to turn against each other until there is only one person left.

  Directed and written by Aaron Hann and Mario Miscione, Circle didn't try to re-invent the wheel with their story but managed to keep things interesting in it's relatively short run time.  The sci-fi touch I mentioned earlier is brought up fairly early on in the film but is discounted until the end which doesn't harm the film at all, but actually lends more to the air of mystery of the predicament these folks are in.  

 There isn't much character development, with most of the characters choosing not to reveal their names (most are credited by names like "the lesbian", "the college guy", "the one-armed man").  I really liked this because it left everyone's fate up in the air without letting you get too attached to any one person.  A lot of deaths were predictable and others were definite jaw-droppers.  Coupled with a good script, the cast did a pretty good job in their performances.  I couldn't seem to pick anyone out that did a shitty job.

 Of course, you can't have the good without the bad, and there was a little bit of bad thrown in.  Again, a lot of the deaths were predictable and repetitive each time, but I guess you can only do so much when your film takes place in one setting.  While the film was intriguing and never really made me lose interest throughout, the final scenes reeeeeallly made me wish they had explored more outside of the dark room.  I feel like it gave us a little taste of what had potential for a broader, more compelling story.

Overall, Circle is a fun, little sci-fi/thriller that's definitely deserving of a watch (and a few more afterwards).

3.5/5 maybe that was a bad move