Macabre…ish Horror Review: Containment

Containment, 2015/ 1 hr 17 min.

A man, Mark (Lee Ross), wakes up to his windows and doors having been sealed shut, the electricity and water is off and soon so is his cell signal. And outside are people in orange hazmat suits. On his intercom is an automated message telling him to remain calm and that the situation is under control.

Then his wall is being broken through by two neighbors, Sergei (Andrew Leung) and Nicu (Gabriel Senior) from another flat. Inside their flat, they are stockpiling food and there are other neighbors, Sally (Louise Brealey),  Aidan and soon Enid (Sheila Enid) they’re trying to figure out what’s going on. The automated message is changed to include ‘a medical team will be available shortly’.

Meanwhile they continue to break through the walls connecting the flats. And outside, just below, tents are being erected and sick people are being led to them. The orange suits are also hosing down the building, the next update says there is a gas leak but that makes no sense, if it were true they’d evacuate the buildings.

Suddenly residents are seen running across the lawn and one man is shot dead by a sniper and the others are captured and dragged away. Then across the quad they see orange suits attacking people in their flats and dragging them away. Now the group is really worried.

Once the orange suits reach them and grab Nicu, Sergei beats one to death and questions another, Hazel (Pippa Nixon), putting a sign on her reading ‘We Got One’ and parades her in front of the window. Hazel talks of an outbreak that spread fast and they are trying to contain and that they all may be infected. It spreads through the air, starts in the throat and moves to shut down vital organs soon thereafter. There is no cure but there is a prototype vaccine, if they can survive 24 hours then it might work.

An enraged Sergei rips open Hazel’s suit and forces her to breathe their air.  Soon it is night fall, the chatter is gone from the radio and other residents have attacked and killed other orange suits and now, in their desperation, they are going to break into the Sergei’s flat for Hazel and the vaccine’s they assume she has.

Now they are all in a different kind of danger. Suddenly, Sally exhibits sudden symptoms of the virus and it moves fast. Hazel tries to save her but within minutes, she’s gone. Meanwhile, Aiden is spooked and puts on the hazmat suit of the dead soldier and runs for his life, he is first attacked by residents who assumes he’s a soldier. Then he’s killed by a sniper who knows he’s not.

Those left have to somehow escape, survive the residents, the sniper and the virus…all while the building is being gassed.

This British epidemic thriller directed by Neil Mcenery-West was as good as a zombie movie but without the zombies. It’s paced well, the tension held all the way through the movie, the cast was very good and it felt like a short movie because I was so engaged. The movie seemed very realistic, even the violence, there was some blood but nothing crazy. This is pretty good!