Netflix fans divided as Chris Hemsworth thriller drops on streaming site despite being branded ‘B-tier Black Mirror’
NETFLIX users have had mixed opinions after watching a new thriller that has been criticised for being too much like a Black Mirror copycat.
The film, which Chris Hemsworth and Miles Teller both star in, is set in a futuristic prison.
Inmates locked up in Spiderhead – incidentally also the name of the film – are given the chance to reduce their sentence by experimenting with mind-altering drugs.
Chris Hemsworth plays calculating scientist Steve Abnesti, who oversees the facilities.
Prisoners are allowed to roam around the jail freely but regularly have various substances tested out on them.
Miles Teller’s character Jeff is in Spiderhead for manslaughter as he accidentally killed his friend while drunk driving.
The troubled man starts off with a trial of N-40, which is a love drug.
Meanwhile some of his fellow inmates are less lucky, and have a drug called Darkenfloxx tested on them with very negative results.
Darkenfloxx inflicts extreme psychological pain and fear on its subjects.
The film is based on a short story written by George Saunders in 2010, called Escape from Spiderhead.
After being excited by the prospect of watching a thriller with such a unique plot, several viewers were left disappointed, and took to an online forum to complain that Spiderhead did not live up to their expectations.
One person grumbled: “I really didn’t enjoy it at all. I liked the general premise but just thought the execution was a bit poor.”
Another agreed: “Tone was trying way to hard to be Black Mirror, the switch between comedy and horror was not executed well. It needed to be a lot darker.”
Several others also compared it to sci fi horror series Black Mirror, while complaining that it was a worse version of the show.
One viewer slammed the Netflix thriller for feeling like “a B-tier Black Mirror episode”.
However, some viewers were impressed by the visuals.
One fan wrote: “It looks great, Kosinski knows how to use the camera even in like four sets, even if it takes until the final sequences for the movie to break loose and feels actually cinematic.”
And a critic previously said: “Spiderhead really goes off the rails at the end. But at least it has rails to go off of, and they’re pretty good ones.”