This is under K because of the director Kurtis David Harder
Writer: Kurtis David Harder (Screenplay)
Starring: Sarah Troyer, Anja Savcic, Valerie Planche, Christopher Rosamond, Josip Condic, Brittany Allen, Levi Meaden, Rory J Saper
Plot: 4 university students hook up to a machine allowing them to become one of their fellow students – e.g. allowing them each to party as one of the rich and beautiful. The long hook-ups start seriously affecting their normal selves.
Tagline – You can be anyone you want to be.
Runtime: 1 Hour 22 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: The Next Level of Flatliners
Story: Incontrol starts when shy university student Samantha (Savcic) get invited to join another group of students, Mark (Meaden), Victor (Saper) and Jenny (Stonechild) who have a machine with allows them to jump into the mind and body of random people, getting to experience the lives they are living from the comfort a room.
Once Samantha learns the method behind what they are doing, she finds herself doing all sorts of illegal activities that she wouldn’t imagine in real life, finding herself being the only one asking about the consequences of their actions.
Thoughts on Incontrol
Characters – Samantha is the student that has been studying social experiments, which sees her invited to join a group who could have the ability to enter into other people’s minds, controlling and living their lives, it seems like fun to start with, but soon it starts getting out of control, she starts wanting to break the rules as she wants to get closer to Mark. Mark invites Samantha into the circle, he doesn’t go to the extremes as the others, while taking part of the pleasures in life, keeping his girlfriend out of the plans. Victor has always pushed the boundaries of the machine, he will break the laws and experience something the rest never did. Jenny hosts the gatherings for the students, she enjoys just relaxing and using the machine to get what she wants out of the lives.
Performances – When we look at the performances we get a mixed selection, Anja Savcic in the leading role does well enough, never coming off truly believable in her everyday life. Levi Meaden and Rory J Saper both do the basics without being as edgy as they should have been, while Shayla Stonechild is fine in her role, nobody is truly great for what we could give us.
Story – This story follows a group of students that get a machine which gives them a chance to live other people’s lives, only things start to get out of hand between them and the power the machine gives them. This could easily be the next level of what Flatliners once gave us, showing us just how people will use mind control to try and reach a new empowerment (yes I know Flatliners is more about returning from the dead, but this offers that at times). We get to see how the people do find themselves going through ideas that they would never have imagined, we also get to play into the creation of paranoia of not knowing who could be watching or controlling you. This is all very compelling, with the only drawback being, not learning enough about the actual machine itself. There is also a pacing issue, because it starts very well, but when it comes to the final chapter, it just seems to be a flash bang over.
Sci-Fi – The sci-fi elements used in this film follows the ideas of being able to control people’s lives, but we don’t dive into the science behind it enough.
Settings – The film is set in an everyday location which shows how alarming what they are doing is.
Scene of the Movie – The First trip.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Not learning enough about the science behind the machine.
Final Thoughts – This is an interesting sci-fi film that does offer up plenty of questions, the problem is, not enough are being answered.
Overall: Sci-Fi interesting.
