Vivarium (film)

Vivarium is a 2019 science fiction thriller film directed by Lorcan Finnegan, from a story by Finnegan and Garret Shanley. An international co-production between Ireland, Denmark, and Belgium, the film stars Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg.

The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2019. It was released in Ireland on 27 March 2020 by Vertigo Releasing.

Plot

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In the opening scene, a cuckoo chick takes over the nest of a family of birds.

Gemma (Imogen Poots) a primary school teacher, leads her class in pretending to be tall trees swaying in the wind.

After school, her boyfriend Tom (Jesse Eisenberg), a handyman, collects her and they drive to an estate agent, as they want to buy a house. The estate agent, Martin (Jonathan Aris), greets them in a strange manner and tries to sell them a house in the suburb of Yonder. Gemma says it’s not what they are looking for, but Martin convinces them go and view a property. Tom attempts to avoid this, but Gemma, egged on by Martin and wanting to be polite, agrees.

They drive to Yonder, a winding estate of identical green houses. Martin shows them around house number 9. He asks them if they have children, and mimics Gemma’s reply, “no, not yet.”. The couple look around the garden, and re-enter the house to find that Martin is gone. They drive out the way they came in, but end up at number 9 again. In disbelief, they drive around the endless estate until their car runs out of petrol.

They sleep in the house. The next morning, Tom climbs to the roof, and gapes at the rows of identical roofs stretching out to the horizon. They try to escape on foot, but consistently return to number 9. A box full of vacuum-packed food and supplies has been left on the road. Tom sets fire to number 9, and they sleep on the pavement. Waking up to a second box, Gemma looks inside to find a baby, and the message, “raise the child and be released”. The smoke clears, revealing the house unscathed from the blaze.

98 days pass, and the baby has grown to a young boy. He acts out Tom and Gemma’s arguments, and screams at a loud pitch until his needs are met. Gemma prepares the tasteless food delivered to them. They sit together in the garden with a pickaxe, waiting to attack whoever delivers and collects the boxes, but they never see anyone. The Boy stands watching them.

Tom starts to dig a deep hole in the garden, thinking it will lead to somewhere. He becomes withdrawn, digging the hole all day and sleeping at the bottom. The Boy watches diffusion patterns on television, and Gemma cares for him alone.

In anger at Gemma’s maternal instincts, Tom locks the Boy in the car, to starve him. Gemma, not wanting to harm him, sets him free and continues to care for him. She starts to bond with him, they play games and have a picnic together, while Tom digs relentlessly. The Boy goes missing one day, and returns with a book full of strange symbols and patterns. Gemma asks him to mimic the person who gave him the book, and the Boy makes choking sounds, his throat veined and bulging.

The Boy grows older, and Tom and Gemma are afraid of him. Gemma prepares his meals, and she and Tom eat in their bedroom, which they have barricaded. Tom is sick, coughing and unable to wash himself. The Boy leaves during the day, and Gemma tries and fails to follow him. Tom continues to dig, and he finds a body buried in a vacuum bag.

The Boy locks Gemma and Tom out of the house, so they sleep in their car. Gemma pleads to him for medicine for Tom. The Boy replies that it is time for Tom to be released. Gemma and Tom lie together on the pavement, recalling the feeling of wind, and speaking about the first time they met. Tom dies in Gemma’s arms, and the Boy zips him into a vacuum bag. He throws his body down the hole.

After spending the night in the car, Gemma ambushes the Boy with a pickaxe. He dodges her, and lifts up the pavement to reveal a hallway labyrinth. He enters the labyrinth and goes through a door. Gemma follows, and crashes through the door into a red-tinted house, where another Boy sits watching television patterns. A woman sobs at the kitchen table. Before they can speak, Gemma sinks through the floor, into a lime green master bedroom. A couple are having sex and a Boy watches and claps. Gemma is sucked through the wall and into a purple bathroom, where a human man has committed suicide.

She lands back in number 9, weak and moaning, where the Boy is cleaning the house. He carries her to a vacuum bag and explains that mothers die after raising their sons. She says she isn’t his mother, and dies as he zips her in.

The Boy buries her with Tom and fills the hole. After filling their car with gas, he drives back to the estate agents, where Martin lies dying in his chair. Martin hands him his name tag, and the Boy places Martin in a vacuum bag, and folds it into a drawer. He sits in Martin’s chair and sits waiting, standing up in greeting when a couple walk in the door.

Cast

Production

In May 2018, it was announced Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots had joined the cast of the film, with Lorcan Finnegan directing from a story he co-wrote with Garret Shanley.

The film was shot in various locations in Belgium and Ireland, before moving to Ardmore Studios, Wicklow, Ireland.

Vivarium is an Irish–Danish–Belgian co-production.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2019. Shortly after, Saban Films and Vertigo Releasing acquired US and UK distribution rights to the film, respectively. It was released in the United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland on 27 March 2020, with a limited theatrical release and video on demand release on the same day. It was released on September 3, 2020 in Saudi Arabia’s cinema.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 72% based on 130 reviews, with an average rating of 6.57/10. The site’s critical consensus reads, “Vivarium may confound almost as often as it intrigues, but this well-acted sci-fi/horror hybrid has interesting ideas – and explores them with style.” On Metacritic, the film has weighted average score of 64 out of 100, based on reviews from 23 critics, indicating “generally favorable reviews”.