You wouldn’t expect the company behind Power Rangers or Jay and Silent Bob Reboot to be throwing their hat into the ring when it comes to disturbing sci-fi thrillers, but Saban Films nonetheless picked up the rights to Vivarium back in May. The movie gained plenty of buzz when it first hit VOD, and now that it’s arrived on Amazon Prime, a much larger number of viewers than ever before will be able to discover just why people were getting so creeped out.
Starring Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots, Vivarium follows a young couple trying to purchase a home, before they end up being brought to a complex of identical empty houses where they realize they’re trapped and a whole host of strange and downright unsettling things start happening. The movie fared pretty well with critics and currently holds a solid Rotten Tomatoes score of 71% from 133 reviews, but the reaction has been much more mixed from audiences, with a score of only 39%.
Now available to Prime subscribers at no extra cost, a ton of folks are experiencing the unique delights of Vivarium for the first time, and based on the reactions that you can check out below, the movie is poised to enjoy a second wave of online buzz.
Has anyone seen vivarium I’m going fucking I N S A N E
— mirabel (@_randombros) July 10, 2020
If you’ve got any amount of cabin fever during extended lockdown/shielding. Don’t watch Vivarium.
— ʙᴇɴ ᴄᴏᴛᴛᴇяɪʟʟ 💙 (@bolehillbilly) July 9, 2020
Vivarium messed with my brain
— gary jordan (@baldys86) July 9, 2020
https://twitter.com/erdissafarti/status/1281632099745828865
We checked out Vivarium and wow isn’t that a great mad concept of a film. Great Irish (& Flemish?) cinema that travels the world without any issue. Well worth checking out now! pic.twitter.com/D3QZIOerlU
— Bring Out The Fear (@bringoutthefear) July 10, 2020
Vivarium (2019)
– this was okay and was genuinely creepy
– i dont ever want to watch this again
– adding to the reasons why i dont want to marry and/or have kids pic.twitter.com/XiBMjx64Ew— chris (@sungjnatelelele) July 10, 2020
The movie “Vivarium” is fucking weird 😭
— the one 🏆 (@RizzyTheScorpio) July 9, 2020
For anyone planning to buy a house in suburbia, maybe don't watch Vivarium first! Creepy!😳🏡🔥 #vivarium #vivariummovie
— Hlabangaz&mash (@hlabangaz) July 9, 2020
Of course, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Vivarium has been generating some pretty polarizing opinions, because it definitely isn’t for everyone. However, if you like your thrillers to combine two genres in wildly unexpected fashion with some truly bizarre results anchored by two strong leading performances, then there are far worse ways to whittle away a couple of hours this weekend than checking it out for yourself.
Tell us, though, do you plan on giving it a watch? Or will you be skipping Jesse Eisenberg‘s latest? Let us know down below.