Lockdown Tower

I recently viewed the French 🇫🇷 film Lockdown Tower (2022) on Prime. The plot revolves around a housing complex that becomes barricaded, trapping its residents with dwindling resources, leading to power struggles within.

Directed by Guillaume Nicloux (Lords of Scam), the film stars Hatik (DogMan), Bruni Makaya (The Lost Prince), Jules Houplain (Who You Think I Am), and Jules Dhios Francisco (The Dazzled).

While the film takes a bit too long to gain momentum, the last 25 minutes deliver what I had hoped for. The unique circumstances lack the intended creepiness, and the film initially focuses heavily on character and circumstance establishment. However, once the premise is set, the dynamics between different groups become interesting. There are also eerie survival concepts and impactful kill sequences at the very end.

In conclusion, Lockdown Tower falls short of its potential but has enjoyable elements. I would give it a 5/10 and recommend watching it once.

For some reason, I initially had a different movie in mind when I started watching this, and it took me a while to realize that I was actually watching a different film. Nevertheless, Lockdown Tower turned out to be quite an intriguing viewing experience, and my feelings about it are somewhat mixed.

The movie kicks off well, drawing me into its narrative. The early segments set high expectations, but unfortunately, this momentum doesn't sustain itself until the end. As the story progresses, it somewhat stagnates, with few novel ideas or events being introduced. The extensive cast complicates matters, making it challenging to discern who's who and which side they're on.

Make no mistake: the movie implies eerie and disturbing events within the tower. However, the intense atmosphere established in the beginning gradually dissipates. Eventually, the movie concludes rather abruptly, leaving viewers with lingering unanswered questions.

Am I satisfied that I watched the movie? Yes. Would I watch it again? No. There are some logical flaws and an unrealistic timeline that raised my eyebrows and caused frustration. Nevertheless, Lockdown Tower represents a noteworthy and distinctive addition to the genre of films where horror emanates from the dynamics within the community of survivors.

I will be clear; this movie atmosphere reminded me strongly other French features released before the COVID plague: DANS LA BRUME, LA NUIT A DEVORE LE MONDE, or even Xavier Gens' THE DIVIDE. I insist, not the plot, but the overall atmosphere. Guillaume Nicloux used us to weird tales but not this kind. As a novelist, he wrote disturbing stories too. This movie is so far one of my favourite from him. The suburb, ghetto towers settings can make it a social film and that's not so surprising. I was stuck, glued to this story, that is never boring. A social disturbing drama that analyses the human behavior between several kinds of communities, several kinds of people. I guess the COVID plague inspired this plot; and it was not the only example since 2021, after the movie shootings resumed.

I've always wanted to live in a Highrise. Until now.

I'll go on record here. Outside of Hollywood, look no further for horror than Australia, South Korea and France. Okay, okay, if you like ghost stories, Japan, but that's really not my bag.

I'd equate them all the same. I love all three country's horror. Not one over the other. This one is French and it really doesn't matter as, sadly, racism extends globally.

The movie REC (or for us Americans, Quarantine) already did this, but not like this. AT ALL. This was creepy and REAL. So simple and yet so effective. Many won't watch this for a factor of reasons: it's subtitled, it's somewhat uneventful, it's low-action/jump-scares, it's foreign and it's on Shudder, a channel most people don't have/know about. And that's all too bad. This movie is powerful, impactful, HAUNTING and will probably stick with me. And quite literally, is enormously basic and equally effectively.

One normal morning the residents of high tower quickly realize there's some black goo (??) or void surrounding the outside of their residence. Any object, including themselves, that attempt to pass through...gets eaten up. How? Why? What happened? Your guess is as good as theirs. But one thing is for sure, survival instincts will kick in soon and who will survive and who will make it out depends....

This movie, as stated, is basic and yet, SOOO deep. Yes, it's about people banding together when having to be stuck in one locale for an indefinite amount of time. This would really happen. Sadly. What would you do?

What would you do if you woke up in a skyrise with different people, culture, races, opinions and you may never be able to leave or figure out what's going on?

This movie is scary on so many levels and I know this will haunt me for a long time. I will not spoil anything, but the time jumps had my heart skip many beats. I've seen many survival horror movies, such as any zombie movie or trapped/isolated groups inside a single location, but this one won't leave me be.

I really don't know what else to say. You're either gonna love this for its originality or hate it because on the surface, it's not a normal horror movie. I'm all about this NOT having any sequels as how they leave this is even more creepy. DO NOT try and explain this or dig deeper. Leave this as is and be completely frightened.

***

Final Thoughts: The only downfall I can think of is...I have no idea who's who in this movie. I think that's part of the point, but I'll never remember any names or characters. I might remember with subsequent viewings, however. I'm really disturbed here on how REAL this fictional movie was.

Seriously. I AM DISTURBED HERE. If you love horror, watch and absorb this. Well done, Writer/Director Guillaume Nicloux. WELL DONE.

I see a lot of horror movies and hardly 20% really frighten me. This terrified me.

Guillaume Nicloux is definitely one of the most known French filmmakers and has made beautiful movies. Nicloux knows how to deal with the same topics while making very different films. Human nature, claustrophobia and the idea of trap were already present, for instance, in his poetic and beautiful VALLEY OF LOVE, with the giants Gerard Depardieu and Isabelle Huppert.

His new film takes a clearly different path, with a very different cast and atmosphere. It poses itself as a "horror film" about a post-apocalyptic world in a tower. Well, THE TOWER is not really horror, or at least, we can say it's not as bloody nor gore than horror movies such as SAW or similar films.

This is first a film about society and social relationship. What's at the center of the story is the behavior of 150 people (or, more precisely, of 3 clans) who are forced to live together inside a tower, for years. So, the supernatural fog element here is only a pretext and doesn't represent the horror of the film. The fog is stil a nice concept, and being only a pretext works, for the movie (and its horror) is about human nature... which is really ugly, and devastating.

Still, one can regret that the concept is not used at its maximum potential. We would have loved to know better the characters, and the film to deal with psychological relations between the different characters, ie., how everyone reacts differently to the event. This is what we could have expected, as the film's promise, but it won't happen. Unfortunately, we can't really identify with the characters, and we don't care if one dies or doesn't: they're two dimensional, and not engaging (despite a great cast!), for we know nothing about them. Instead, they form different clans, and the whole film deals with the battle of these clans. Again, there are certainly lots of Nicloux's fears in this, as he mentioned THE TOWER was probably his most personal film. So, having different clans tells a lot about human nature, according to him, and is not an issue. The issue is that we, STILL, would have loved to know better the main protagonists.

The film is full of suspense and tension (camera work, lightings, costumes, settings are all great work), but again, suspense would have been much increased if we knew the characters better. The claustrophobic mood adds a lot, while the organization of the food in the pic is really disturbing. A disturbing experience with a feeling that something is unfinished.