Vivarium (2019) Movie Review

I watch any movie that features a maze or labyrinth as part of the plot. Usually that means some great maze movies that I would recommend everyone watch. But it seems I got the best movies out of the way first based on my last 3 sub-par movie reviews: The Funhouse Massacre, The Maze and Mazes and Monsters . So where does Vivarium come out ? Let’s find out….

Vivarium (IMDB) (Amazon)

Vivarium movie poster

So Vivarium is a comedy horror film starring Imogen Potts and Jesse Eisenberg as a young couple looking to purchase their first house. They stop into the Yonder Homes rental office and decide to visit the development where they are shown house #9. The sign as they pull into the development says “Quality Family Homes. Forever”. Everything from there on out goes wrong. The rental agent mysteriously leaves them and despite a full day of driving they cannot find their way out of the development, continually driving in circles stuck in a maze of identical looking homes. Exhausted, they spend the first night in the house eager to try exiting again the next day.

And the next day.

And creatively the next day.

And again, and again. . But they are stuck. Forever ?

Invisible workers that can never be caught are dropping off food and taking trash, and one day the drop off something a bit more interesting with a note that says if they complete a task they can leave.

Things get weird (wait they weren’t already weird ?) from there. And creepy. And finally a bit crazy.

This is an interesting concept for a movie but the last 20 minutes could have been improved. Still I liked the movie better than the critics and would recommend it as a free stream/ library rental. It certainly is worth having a conversation about with friends. What would you do in this situation ? What the heck was going on ? etc. What’s was the deal with ****** (spoiler free question !!!) ? And when you are done watching the movie, if you were interested, you will search for “Vivarium ending explained”.

This movie is the longer version of the short film Foxes (2011) from the same director. The theme is the same with a slightly different story, and I would recommend it. You can read my review which includes a link to watch the entire movie.

One of my favorite parts of this movie is the thumbnail for the trailer below ! We’ve all felt this way.

Mazes and Monsters (1982) Movie Review

I love watching movies where mazes and labyrinths are a key part of the movie. They usually make for some great maze movies. But there are also movies like The Funhouse Massacre and The Maze. So where does this TV movie from 1982 starring Tom Hanks rank ? I mean Tom Hanks is in it, it must be good !

Mazes and Monsters (IMDB) (Amazon)

Mazes and Monsters movie poster

Mazes and Monsters premiered on TV just after Christmas in 1982. This was a time when Dungeons and Dragons was becoming very popular (and in researching this it happens this game changes in popularity often) and the movie tried to play off of that. This was also a time when parents started to become worried about demonic influences in games/tv/video games that eventually led to congressional hearings.

The movie revolves around 4 college friends who play M&M together. One night they vote to play their next game inside the local caverns to add some excitement to the game. Of course things don’t go as planned, monsters begin appearing in dreams, and one of the players gets lost in the caverns (they are like a maze). Eventually the police begin searching for missing player but the caverns are difficult to search….

But this movie is NOT about some plot, it is about a moral that the viewer must learn and that is- Playing Mazes and Monsters (or in real life D&D) leads to dangerous and disturbing behavior (see what I did there, D&D) in players and mental health problems. Parents, be careful in what you allow your children to play/watch.

For Tom Hanks, this was his 6th ever credit as an actor, right after some single episode work on Taxi and Happy Days, and before a 3 episode run on Family Ties. But by March of 1984, 15 months after this TV movie first aired Hanks got his break in film by appearing with Daryl Hannah in Splash. As of this writing, Mazes and Monsters is considered the worst rated movie or show Tom Hanks was ever in !!! Don’t fight it, avoid this movie !!!!

OR. You can check out this short video:

The Maze (2010) Movie Review

I try to watch any movie that has a maze or labyrinth as an important part of the story. Usually that means some great maze movies like the ones I reviewed last year. I mean who doesn’t love the great world of Ready Player One, Inception, or Pan’s Labyrinth ? Of course, not all movies are good, ...um The Funhouse Massacre ? So where does The Maze come out ? Let’s find out….

The Maze (IMDB) (Amazon)

The Maze 2010 movie poster

The Maze is a low budget horror film that follows a group of friends who decide it would be a good idea to play a game of tag in a corn maze at night. Unfortunately for them there is a killer in a red hoodie stalking the group of friends inside the maze. The nice part about the setting of the movie, besides being in a maze is that the setting does mean you don’t always notice the low budget. But those times are few and far between, because you will definitely notice the quality of the production.

As with most horror movies there is a twist at the end, but you will see it coming. Overall, I would put this as slightly worse than The Funhouse Massacre and I would avoid this movie aggressively. If you want to spend time with it, this trailer should be enough !! Yes, the quality of the trailer is poor, but that is what this movie deserves.

The Funhouse Massacre (2015) Movie Review

Why would I be reviewing a movie from 2015 now ? Well all of this staying-at-home means I have been watching a lot of streaming movies and shows…and well, I seem to be out of things to watch. Like my Que and Watch-lists got cleared out, and so I created new ones, then those got cleared out. So here we are, I’m looking for maze movies to watch. And there are some great maze movies out there, but this is not one of them.

The Funhouse Massacre (IMDB) (Amazon)

The Funhouse Massacre movie poster

So The Funhouse Massacre is a comedy horror film heavy on gore and light on comedy. Let’s start with the comedy. There are many lines that are meant to be funny, and for whatever reason, poor delivery, bad jokes, they just seem to just fall flat. I found myself noticing throughout the film, oh they thought that was funny. And that. And that. They were wrong. I did almost chuckle twice and thought - that was close.

The horror portion of the film is built around a great premise. It’s Halloween night and in a small town in Ohio during which there is a grand opening of a new Halloween fun-house. It just so happens that day a group of psychopaths break out of a nearby asylum and take over the fun-house unbeknownst to the customers. When customers do enter the fun-house they comment multiple times - oh my gosh that looks so real as previous customers are torn apart, tortured, and slashed. The film goes heavy on the gore to make things scarier. Also there is an evil clown, because of course there is, and an evil dentist (same same but different). Eventually the characters you are following begin to become victims and realize what is happening. They try to warn others who say - “wow that looks so real”.

Eventually we get a courageous fight back and a few plot twists leading to a final confrontation. But wait they aren’t dead the first time because this is a horror film, ok now they are dead. But wait after the credits now maybe they still aren’t dead and maybe there will be a sequel. Fade to Black. You’ve seen it before.

The nice part about this movie is, other than an appearance by Robert Englund, is that it can always be found streaming for free somewhere. So you won’t feel any guilt turning it off before it is over just because you paid for it. And after 90 minutes (ok, maybe 10) you might realize, like me, that despite taking place in a maze, this isn’t a very good maze movie.