A well-made and engrossing but slightly narratively flawed sci-fi/horror mindbender, with video montages that would make Ken Russell proud. It's not perfect but well-enough done to be satisfying for me, despite the occasional cinematic excess or tough-to-swallow narrative turn.
A tourist couple and some friends visiting a foreign nation break the rules and leave the compound, drunkenly killing a local. From there it gets into some trippy territory that's just unexpected enough that I don't want to give away any more than that.
It's not great but it was good enough that it held my attention. The plot was definitely original, if a little too weird to completely suspend disbelief. I did like the way some outlandish ideas were handled, at least at first, with some gritty, matter-of-fact realism.
By the end it goes a little over-the-top but not far enough to ruin my overall enjoyment of most of the film.
It was only after watching that I discovered it's a Brandon Cronenberg film, which explains a lot. Brandon shares some of his father's tendency to get a little too conceptually far-out at times but cinematically he's become a skilled director. This movie is not for everybody, as I said it's definitely not perfect, and I'd be cautious about recommending it, but some people will find a lot here to enjoy. I did.
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