About
Meander is a 2021 film, written and directed by French film producer Mathieu Turi. It is a claustrophobic, survival-horror film.
"When I watched Meander [film, 2020] for the first time, I was picking up on some hard-core 'Metroid vibes' that I just couldn't shake". Hell, the cover-art for the film (upon later, closer inspection), practically screams morph-ball tunnels!"
The story centers around a woman that awakens to find herself, inexplicably, on the side of the road. A man in a truck offers to pick her up and in doing so, further inexplicably finds herself awakening in a labyrinthine of tunnels that respond to her presence. From the onset, the audience is unsure how/if she was abducted, or how she got there. No matter. All we know is she is now wearing a single piece, skin-tight, suit and on her left wrist: an irremovable, glowing bracelet, which serves as a light to her character and a countdown timer to this unwilling participant.
Where to watch: As of late July 2022, I ended up watching the full movie for free, via VUDU (Fandango) with advertisements/commercials. While the commercials are not excessive, expect to watch around a half a dozen to a dozen sets of commercials. Each set of commercials are usually less than 2 minutes in duration. On the other hand, if you don't mind the digital rental/own price, it can be obtained here and potentially viewed elsewhere. Or... if you aren't into proverbial 'morph balls', claustrophobic spaces, or really weird shit... then maybe you should skip this one.
Warning: If you haven't seen the movie (but intend to) AND you have played at least the Metroid Prime trilogy, this is where I recommend you pause your reading, bookmark this page, watch it, then return to it later and tell me if you agree with my review. Other.... read on~!
Review
One might ask how a film like this, even appeared on my radar. In truth, it actually hadn't. It wasn't until a post on Hideo Kojima's Twitter feet, with a signed copy from a fan of his work surfaced, that it sparked curiosity. Enough curiosity to track down when/where I could watch it. A quick Google search, a VUDU link and a lack of things to do later, I found myself watching it.
The story does not start off slow. The first five minutes, it comes across as your typical abduction thriller and that's the way it feels at first. At this point in the film, my guess was the movie was going to play out like an older film, which I liked, 1997's Cube [film]. Another part of me wondered if instead, the angle was some perverse clandestine/darkweb reality game show. Fortunately, both expectations were immediately shattered, especially when she eventually stumbles upon the snake-like head figure.
"The snake-skull-cyborg-head thing/entity that nurses and tends to her wounds, and acts as a 'safe/save point room', shattered my expectations that this movie would fit perfectly into my past expectations claustrophobic survival horror, but instead was entirely a movie - all its own. It also lended to the Metroid-esque mystique, with a similar alien-likeness, to that of a mini-Mother Brain. Although it did feel a little Half-Life: Alyx'y, as it was to the grub stations."
But perhaps that was the goal, or the desired aesthetic of the director.
Review in progress...
Overall, I give the movie an 8.4/10.