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It's the newest and most extreme reality show: Contestants are put into solitary confinement with no means of distraction or any contact to the outside world (not even fellow contestants), but given a safe word should they want to/need to bail, and whoever manages to stay in the longest wins $2 million - and of course the usual reality TV "fame". Sounds horrible from the get-go, but of course people from all walks of life apply because there are always those who'd do anything for fame and/or money, from the street-smart girl (Heather Dorff) to the wannabe TV star (Jessica Cameron), from the hobby philosopher (Robert Damian) to the outright hunk (Raw Leiba), from the hypochondriac (Trista Robinson) the the violent hothead (Jose Rosete), and pretty much everything in-between. Nobody did know though how harsh the conditions would be, rations would be one bottle of water and box of oatmeal today, and there'd be no sanitation, just a bucket as a toilet, and other than a thin mattress, there'd be no furniture of any kind, and not even a blanket. So by the by, the contestants break, each in their own time, and use the safe word - only, nobody's coming to let them out, they're just kept in indefinitely, for better or worse - well, mostly worse ...

Top-billed Robert Carradine plays the show's manipulative producer.

A very dark satire/social commentary on reality TV and what it has become over the years (with "zoo" actually being one of the nicer words for it), Human Zoo is little surprisingly a bleak exercise in cynicism - but the film's really more than just that, as beneath it all it's also several character studies rolled into one (some more and some less extensive though), with all arcs dilligently woven into its over-arching narrative structure. And a rather impressive ensemble cast really brings the story to life, paired with an actor-centric approach to things that yet manages to create the appropriate atmosphere, and a properly eerie soundscape. In all, a pretty disturbing film, actually, but disturbing in the best possible way.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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