de facto film reviews 3.5 stars

One of the most challenging parts of adult life is finding the perfect home. Houses are very expensive, and finding one that suits your needs can be even harder. Whether you’re an individual, couple, or a family, searching for the perfect home within your price range is never an easy task. That’s why there are so many suburbs that advertise themselves as the perfect community for whatever type of person may be looking for a home.

Young couple Tom (Jesse Eisenberg) and Gemma (Imogen Poots) are looking for a new home. They don’t quite know what they want in life, and are unsure of what direction their relationship is going. Their hunt for a new home leads them to a development called Yonder; which promises the perfect home for the perfect family. Though it’s not quite what they’re looking for, they’re willing to give it a look.

After a rather strange house tour from their odd real estate agent, they attempt to leave, but the layout of identical homes continuously lead them back to the house they looked at. No matter what direction they go, they always end up at the place where they started. It isn’t long before they realize that they’re apart of some supernatural experiment; provided with food, supplies, and even a child. They’ll either have to go along with this or risk their lives trying to escape the nightmare.

Vivarium is a strange film, not just in story but also in execution. From the colorful visual style to the off-kilter performances from the cast, everything about this movie is designed to off-put you. Right from the beginning, the movie is doing everything it can to make you feel uncomfortable. And that’s not really a bad thing.

In fact, that’s one of the movie’s greatest strengths. The growing sense of uneasy shifts between genuine humor and genuine fear, constantly pulling the rug out from under you. This makes the movie very unpredictable. You never know what’s going to happen next, let alone how to properly react to it.

This is aided by the film’s unique visuals. The layout and appearance of the strange suburb looks like it was ripped out of a picturesque real estate brochure. It looks inviting, almost cartoonish. And that’s entirely the point. It’s designed to look peaceful and playful in order to draw you into the nightmarish trap that lies within.

Vivarium is an great blend of comedy and horror that effectively keeps you laughing. It offers no easy answers to the mysteries it introduces, keeping us in the dark for the entire runtime. But that only succeeds in keeping us terrified about what is going to happen next. Everything about this movie is designed to make you uncomfortable, and that makes the final payoff all the more rewarding.