The Platform returns for a second helping. I enjoyed the first instalment. It had some issues, but it was largely an engaging horror with a lot of style and had some genuinely intriguing things to say about how we behave as a society. It drip fed its narrative well. Posing questions, letting the viewer do the work. This sequel does require you to have seen its predecessor really, but we get a bit more information upfront. Mainly about Zamiatin (Hovik Keuchkerian), he’s on Level 24 with Perempuán (Milena Smit) and he has a problem. You see here, the food that decends through each cell isn’t a free for all as before. Scoff all you want if you’re at the top and leave those below you to stave. They’ve devised a system. Everyone has their dish. Selected in advance of entering The Pit. Everyone eats what they’re supposed to and harmony is achieved. Except someone has eaten Zamiatin’s pizza! I recall the last film starting with a slow menacing pace. This is certainly still menacing, but it’s right into the action as a fight kicks off with the pizza thief on Level 21 and there are casualties, the first of many. I liked the simplicity of The Platform, but things feel convoluted here. We learn through Robespierre (Bastien Ughetto) that this system is self imposed, a law, governed by trust, devised by one known as The Messiah. Zamiatin is new and skeptical. He’s not violent, but he’s not great at obeying rules. Perempuán though is and she’s a positive influence. What makes this tick is the level reset every month. Although our friends start on Level 24 and learn to respect the law. It’s much harder to keep in line when they find themselves on Level 180! The premise is simple as Perempuán explains to her new cellmate Sahabat (Natalia Tena), “If the law isn’t respected, people die. The higher up you are, the more responsibility”. Sahabat isn’t new though and knows that the rules are worthless and no one survives. It’s bleak stuff. The barbarians disobeying the rules are punished by The Anointed lead by Daging Babi (Óscar Jaenada), who dictates without mercy. Everyone else is expected to obey or face the gruesome consequences. Obviously things fall apart. This is a horror not a blueprint for utopia, but it would be better if the film itself didn’t fall apart. The first film wasn’t perfect, but it had clarity that matched the starkness of the uniform concrete world of The Pit. This though tries to build on it and its foundations just aren’t strong enough.
3/10
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