Macabre…ish Horror Review: Office Uprising

Office Uprising, 2018/ 1 hr 32 min

Chronically late slacker, Desmond (Brenton Thwaites), has an office job at one of the world’s largest weapons manufacturers, Ammotech. He’s called into the boss’ office for a stern warning that happens to coincide with mass layoffs happening in the company.

Meanwhile, the office culture is what you might expect and the level of douchery is equal to the floor level, from least to worst, shipping and receiving, call center, accounting and advertising, HR, sales and R & D, finally executives at the top.

Desmond relieves the stress of his job by losing documents on purpose, escaping into closets for group toke sessions and working on his game app. His childhood friend, Samantha (Jane Levy), also works there and she motivates him to stay.

One day, after noticing coworkers being unusually secretive, some are dead but in bizarre ways. The one’s who are alive are behaving in a strange way. Disconnected and calmly acknowledging their kills, without a hint of irony. Any small issue with job performance or productivity can get you the death penalty.

Desmond is next when he presents his rushed work, filled with errors. He realizes while hiding that everyone has one thing in common they are all drinking the same brand of drink, Zolt. Now they are strong, rabid monsters and any small annoyance or break from office protocol can mean death. He survives by ignoring the carnage and body parts being thrown around during brain storming sessions. He just acts like it’s any other day.

All of his office buddies are infected, including his bff, Samantha, who beats him up and threatens him with sex. Desmond still hopes to save her though. So he duct tapes her to a dolly and heads to the exit, he needs to get past their rabid coworkers. Then he finds one uninfected friend, Mourad (Karan Soni), no Zolt for him because he’s fasting.

They opt for trying to break out a window, after the elevator free falls and the stairs are blocked by active carnage, but bullet proof windows and security shields activate. Sealing the entire building and trapping everyone inside. They have to survive while trying to figure out how to deactivate the security system. And they survive, in part, by using what they’ve learned on the job. They finally discover what happened when they find the founder and execs safe, in the panic room.

This movie is very violent, incredibly bloody and gory. It is also funny and has elements like Zombieland and Netherbeast, with animation and lists. Very good cast Gregg Henry, Kurt Fuller, Sam Daly, Kenneth Choi, Barry Shabaka Henry, Ian Harding etc. The pacing is fast and the feel is very light, considering the subject matter. Lots of different and imaginative kills, really very zombie like acting and kill choreography.