October is the beginning of Horror Movie month for many, especially if you are one of the many that avidly enjoys Halloween. If I had one piece of advice, it’d be to grab your popcorn for this one- The Platform is a must-watch horror flick.
Set in a dystopia where prisoners are housed in small, cramped cells, where prisoners are randomly placed on numbered floors- the prisoners on the upper levels are given food when those in the lower levels starve.
The movie can be found on Netflix and is in Spanish- but it is also subtitled in numerous languages, such as French & English. The movie is set in a prison-like structure, where two people are placed in a room with a large hole in the middle.
Each day, a platform for food is placed on the first level. It is a feast, unlike anything that could ever be imagined. There are exotic fruits, foreign foods like escargot, exquisite cakes with many layers of frosting, rich meats with lots of sauces. The first level may take their pick of anything on the platform. The problem? Many times, those on the first level get greedy, & intentionally ruin the food for the people below.
The platform descends, never restocking on food. Each level eats the leftovers of the level above them, & so forth.
The horror begins around level 150 when all that is left for those on that level & below are shells & bones of the food that once was, as well as the dishes the food came on. The people from levels 150 to 300 starve to the point where they consider death, & even cannibalism.
The film is roughly an hour & a half, but full of twists & turns that keep the audience well on their feet. Just when you think the film is beginning to get predictable, it shifts gears. For a movie shot in only one room, meaning only one setting, it does an incredible job at keeping tension between itself & the audience.
The bias against subtitled films does exist- but it shouldn’t. Subtitles aren’t scary. Movies like The Platform are. With an eerie cast of characters & a suffocating atmosphere, The Platform serves as an extremely well done, & jaw-dropping scary movie, perfect for the season.