Vivarium (film)

''Vivarium'' is a 2019 horror film directed by Lorcan Finnegan, from a story by Finnegan and Garret Shanley. An international co-production between Ireland, Denmark, and Belgium, it stars Imogen Poots, Jesse Eisenberg, Jonathan Aris, and Éanna Hardwicke. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2019, and was released in Ireland on 27 March 2020 by Vertigo Releasing. The film follows a couple (Eisenberg and Poots) who are forced to care for a mysterious anthropomorphic creature while trapped in a strange, vivarium-like neighbourhood.

Plot

The opening scene depicts the brood parasitism of a cuckoo before introducing primary school teacher Gemma and her handyman boyfriend Tom. They drive to meet with real estate agent Martin, who leads them to an enormous suburban development of identical green houses called Yonder, beneath a weirdly artificial sky. Martin shows them around house number 9, asking if they have children. When Gemma replies, "No, not yet", Martin mimics her perfectly. After looking around the garden they find Martin has vanished. Attempting to leave, they repeatedly find themselves back at number 9. They drive around the endless, identical streets until they run out of fuel.

They sleep in the house. The next morning, they try to escape on foot, but consistently return to number 9. They find a box of tasteless vacuum-packed food in front of the house. Tom sets fire to the house in order to send up a smoke signal; they watch the building burn, then fall asleep on the pavement. When they wake up, they discover another box containing an infant and the message, "Raise the child and be released." The smoke clears, but house number 9 is undamaged.

After 98 days, the infant is the size of a ten year-old boy. It mimics Tom and Gemma and shrieks when it wants food. When it calls Gemma "Mother," she insists that she is not its mother. Gemma and Tom wait in the garden with a pickaxe to attack whoever delivers the food, but they never see anyone. Tom starts digging a hole in the garden and becomes withdrawn. Later, he starts hearing strange sounds underground. In the living room, The Boy watches fractal-like patterns on the television.

Tom locks The Boy in their car to starve it, thinking that if someone comes for it, they could force them to free them. However, Gemma takes pity and releases The Boy. Tom keeps digging every day and begins sleeping in the hole. One day The Boy goes missing and returns with a book of odd symbols and images of humanoids with throat sacs. When Gemma asks it to mimic the person who gave it the book, it makes rasping sounds and inflates its throat sacs, horrifying Gemma.

The Boy matures to resemble a young adult and Tom becomes ill, but he continues to dig. The Boy leaves each day and Gemma tries to follow it but always finds herself back at number 9. In the hole, Tom finds a buried corpse in a vacuum bag. The Boy locks Gemma and Tom out of the house and they sleep in the car. Gemma pleads with The Boy for medicine for Tom but it replies, "Maybe it's time he was released." When Tom dies, The Boy zips him into a vacuum bag and throws it into the hole Tom has dug.

Gemma wounds The Boy with the pickaxe. The Boy hisses and crawls into a labyrinth under the sidewalk. Gemma follows and crashes through a door into multiple rooms in other houses with more Boys and several strangers, one of whom has died by suicide.

She lands back in number 9, weak and moaning. The Boy carries her to a vacuum bag, explaining that mothers die after raising their sons. She tells it that she is not its mother and dies as it zips her in. The Boy buries her with Tom and drives back to the real estate office, where an aged Martin lies dying in its chair. Martin gives The Boy its name tag and dies. The Boy places Martin in a vacuum bag and puts it into a garbage chute disguised as a file drawer. When a couple walks in the door, the Boy greets them just as Martin did.

Cast

Production

In May 2018, it was announced that Lorcan Finnegan would direct ''Vivarium'' from a story he co-wrote with Garret Shanley, and that Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots had joined the cast. It was shot in locations in Belgium and Ireland before moving to Ardmore Studios, Wicklow, Ireland.

Release

''Vivarium'' premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2019. Shortly after, Saban Films and Vertigo Releasing acquired US and UK distribution rights, respectively. It was released in the United States, UK and Ireland on 27 March 2020, with a limited theatrical release and video-on-demand release the same day.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, ''Vivarium'' has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critics consensus reads, "''Vivarium'' may confound almost as often as it intrigues, but this well-acted sci-fi/horror hybrid has interesting ideas—and explores them with style." On Metacritic, the film has weighted average score of 64 out of 100 based on reviews from 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

See also

* Stopover in a Quiet Town

References

External links

*
*

{{Authority control

2019 films
2019 horror thriller films
2019 psychological thriller films
2019 independent films
2019 science fiction films
2010s English-language films
2010s psychological horror films
2010s science fiction horror films
2010s science fiction thriller films
Belgian horror thriller films
Belgian science fiction thriller films
Danish science fiction horror films
Danish science fiction thriller films
English-language Belgian films
English-language Danish films
English-language Irish films
Films about adoption
Films about dysfunctional families
Films about educators
Films shot in Belgium
Films shot in the Republic of Ireland
Irish horror thriller films
Irish science fiction horror films
Irish science fiction thriller films