Vivarium: Grim, unsettling suburban horror - #31DayHorrorChallenge - Day 1: Trapped

Vivarium - Lorcan Finnegan - 2019  

★★ - I usually have an affinity for movies like this. Weird, mind-bending, unexplained, unsettling, a solid cast and stylish direction. But this one is too much. A grim, bleak, dark film. Not an enjoyable watch, but it's pretty good. Really interesting flick that works on a lot of levels. But, again, too grim for my tastes.  

Gist is a couple, portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots, find themselves trapped in a mysterious neighborhood after a creepy realtor abandons them. They are then forced to care for a creepy, abnormal child that is obviously not human.  
 
Pretty much the whole movie, if you are like me, you'll ask yourself at what point would you murder the child you've been tasked with raising. I would have killed the little freaky Alfalfa looking kid when he started mocking me in my own voice. Definitely when he starts that screaming. Eventually he grows into a little Jehovah's Witness or Mormon or something.  
 

Lot of metaphor here. Not only with the cuckoo at the beginning, but the whole thing. Getting a house, digging yourself in a hole (in this movie, literally), living there, paying it back, and then dying with your shitty, indoctrinated little shit of a kid soaking it all up before tossing you out on your ass.  
 
Eisenberg ends up getting some form of cancer, probably. Likely from the “dirt” from the digging. Shit is asbestos or some such shit. Dying on her is pretty messed up.  
 
Poots is outrageously cute. I love her name, too. She's been stellar in everything I've seen her in. I'm sort of surprised she isn't a bigger star.  
 
Overall, Vivarium is a suspenseful and gripping film driven by the outstanding performances of its lead actors that'll never watch again, nor recommend. Fans of really dark psychological thrillers and eerie, confined horror films may find the film enjoyable, but you've gotta be a different breed.