‘Another month in the pit…’
The problem with any high-concept horror movie, whether it be Cube, Saw, or Paranormal Activity, is that when the concept is so devilishly good in the first place, how do you make a sequel that avoids being a bland rehash of the original? The Platform dropped on Netflix during the COVID-19 pandemic and was viewed by an unusually large audience (56 million households apparently). When I heard there was a sequel in production, my first thought was that they couldn’t possibly add anything to the source material while remaining in the confines of the vertical prison setting of the first movie. For once, I was correct…
We begin back in the prison from the first movie with a cell shared by Perempuan (Milena Smit), a quiet but determined woman, and Zamiatin (Hovik Keuchkerian), a grossly overweight and disquieting man. The fresh angle introduced by director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia is that the prisoners have split into two factions. The loyalists try to impose order and parity to the platform. They have created strict rules that mean that everyone eats the food they have ordered but if they take more than their share, they are severely punished. Barbarians, the second faction, ignore the loyalists and just take what they want. This is an interesting concept, and the first two-thirds of the movie are compelling enough just by exploring this new status quo. Unfortunately, everything unravels in the unnecessarily confusing and convoluted third act. It’s almost as if Gaztelu-Urrutia lost faith in his new narrative halfway through and instead decided to revert to type by revisiting the source material.
The Platform 2 is a very typical horror sequel. It’s a fun movie but it’s also a movie that never really justifies its own existence. While the filmmakers leave enough intrigue on the table for a third movie in the franchise, they must take it in a different direction next time. Saying that, I will almost certainly be reviewing Platform 8 – Platform Harder in the coming years so they may as well serve up any old slop. I’ll still be watching.
