Containment

It's low budget but does rather well with what it has. I've seen Hollywood blockbusters costing 100 times this movie that were 100 times worse.

There are plot holes and the characters are somewhat stereotypical, but on the whole I found it gripping enough to keep watching.

Worth a watch and gets a solid six.

Reviewed by: Dare Devil Kid

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

"Containment" gets by purely on resourcefulness and sincerity. It's a niftily executed viral-outbreak thriller that, true to its title, makes good use of a confined space to ratchet up the drama of the situation, while working hard to bypass the more obvious narrative traps it creates for itself. Strong attention to detail and a disquieting score set this directorial debut feature apart, but some of the characters' motivations aren't entirely convincing.

There's nothing groundbreaking in this low-budget British thriller, but newbie director Neil Mcenery-West makes excellent use of his claustrophobic setting. Eventually, "Containment" succeeds in proving that you don't need a whopping great budget, nor an A-list cast to produce an accomplished piece of work.

My quick rating 4,3/10. When Shocktober is here, I like some horror, sci fi is good with the horror mix, thriller works as well and this movie had all that....OK it had that in the billing. Truth be told, this movie has zero horror elements and even the sci fi element is a stretch. All that is left is a thriller, and not a very good one. A poorly acted group gets stuck (by glue) into an apartment with no reason/warning. No food, water, phone etc. just a straight up quarantine. The movie explores how people would react to this situation. Well, that is your movie, no rhyme or reason, no actual tension and no acting that can hold the story. Even 76 minutes seemed to long as evident in the drawn out scenes that another person described as "making the movie longer" or I would call "filler" There was no real story, more so just an idea. This was evident in how it ended. Too bad, with more to it and better acting, they may have had something.

"Containment" (2015) is the film that sounds cliché but isn't. It's a surprisingly fresh take on an old standby -- diverse people isolated by an outside threat are forced to cope and survive with each other, along with the threat. In this case, an entire apartment block in Britain is forcibly and mysteriously quarantined overnight; residents awake to sealed doors and hazardous materials units being deployed along the grounds.

But this is a smartly written independent sci-fi thriller that avoids a lot of common tropes. Then it introduces plot developments that are unexpected, yet make perfect sense. It's more original than you'd guess at first.

There's a lot of nice acting, including work by Lee Ross, and by Louise Brealey of "Sherlock" (2010) fame.

My only complaint was a thematically ambiguous ending that seemed lost on me. But I'd still give this an 8 out of 10.

Containment: Would Southampton be improved by a Viral Outbreak? Well thats what happens in this film which was made and set in Southampton. Residents on a tower block estate wake up to find themselves sealed in their apartment. Breaking through (shoddy) walls, six people link up. Outside they can see figures in hazmat suits setting up large tents. Soon residents from the ground floors are being escorted towards the tents. One makes a break for it and is shot dead.

A survival thriller where the State is withholding the full facts and treating ordinary people as expendable. 6/10.