Mayhem

THE GIST: An airborne virus that attacks the nervous system and removes all inhibitions spreads through an office building, which is then quarantined by the police. Those inside have no protection from the virus and no way to resist their worst and most basic urges and impulses, leading to acts of sex, violence, and revenge that had, up to now, been contained.

Mayhem is a dark comedy that deals with a topic we're all too familiar with right now: the emergence of a new virus against which we're initially defenseless. Certainly the virus in the movie is way more dangerous than the coronavirus we're dealing with . . .

The movie, in my opinion, is not fully successful, in spite of it clearly being tongue-in-cheek, because it feels somewhat cheaply and summarily made.

Steven Yeun and Samara Weaving are pretty good, but overall all the actors seem to play exaggerated caricatures, and that kind of downgraded the whole thing for me. It's almost like they didn't take themselves too seriously—whether directed to or not—and therefore I couldn't either.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Not a bad movie, just not fully successful. Still, it's okay for a night of escapism.

Grade: 5.5