We watched The
Platform on Netflix with a bunch of HMT fans over the Chrome Netflix Party
extension and boy, I love this movie! While I am certain that lots of purists
will debate whether this is horror or not, I assure you, it’s worth the watch
and will definitely find some way to make your skin crawl. The timing of this
release makes me wonder if Netflix has a bunch of totally apropos titles just
waiting in the wings to be released whenever they are most relevant.
@dgoebel00 on Instagram provided this amazing artwork. Follow him and check out his
website.
The Platform Synopsis
The Platform is about a
prison called the pit where there are three kinds of people; the ones above,
the ones below, and the ones who fall. This is a twisted place where every cell
contains two people and is stacked on top of a seemingly endless column of
other cells.
https://youtu.be/6gVAIx7OeyI
Every day there is a
massive banquet comprised of everyone in the prison’s favorite dish. This
banquet contains enough calories for everyone in the pit to survive. The catch
is the banquet is placed on a platform that stops at every cell for a short
time, and it starts at the top and works its way down.
Some prisoners are there
by choice, some are there because of a crime, but there seems to be a promise
that is made to all of them upon entry into the pit - if you do your time and
make it out, you will be granted increased social standing.
Our protagonist is a man
called Goreng (
Ivan Massagué), who spends time with several of
the inmates of the pit. As he learns the ropes, he also seems to take issue
with the inherent societal problems that it represents: greed and desperation.
The Platform REVIEW
The Platform is a
Spanish film by
Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, and it’s one of the most
unique ideas that I’ve seen put to the screen since
Cube.
Watch Cube on AmazonThe spiritual predecessor to The Platform
Click Here to Watch
The minimal but rigid
design of the pit echos in the sci-fi dystopian walls of the film itself.
You know the sick and
twisted world that lay in the basement of Buffalo Bill in
The Silence of the Lambs? That terrifying
and perverse reality that we like to forget exists in the real world? That
feeling is magnified in The Platform and made the subject of the entire
movie.
MMM, tastes like class oppression!
To make it even more
hard-hitting, The Platform is clearly a commentary on humans and society today.