The Horror Show
Mayhem
by Joe Lynch
Earlier this year we were treated to a fun little flick called The Belko Experiment. It was met with mixed reviews and criticisms and despite enjoying that film immensely, I see now how it could have been much more. Mayhem is the perfect office horror film that pushes the envelope just a bit more than Belko does in regard to storytelling, violence, gore, and comedy.
In a world where The Red Eye Virus exists, Derek Cho’s day is about to get a hell of a lot worse. His firm is filled with cut throat lawyers and no-nonsense executives, so when a file for their biggest client falls through the cracks, a higher up places the blame on Derek to save her own ass. He not only loses his job, but on his way out, finds the building quarantined as the infamous Red Eye Virus spreads through the offices. The virus, which allows the id to take over and cause chaos, has an incubation period of about eight hours, so that’s all the time Derek has to get his job back, seek revenge, and deal with the absolute mayhem consuming everyone around him.
Steven Yeun totally killed it in his role as Derek and Samara Weaving as Melanie was fabulous. There are a few more familiar faces scattered throughout the film and each respective role was fun and added just the necessary amount of depth to progress the story. The plot unraveled almost like a video game for me with increasing levels of difficulty for each boss battle as our main characters made their way to the penthouse floor of the office building. I also enjoyed Derek’s voiceover narration throughout.
The comedic elements were blended perfectly with the horror and the viewer was constantly reminded that while, yes, the virus was causing the mayhem, Derek’s coworkers are a bunch of shamelessly self-involved assholes that would stop at nothing to save their own asses, virus or not.
While I’m not a huge fan of lovey dovey happy endings, it only made sense here to end on the high note that it did. The film wrapped up nicely with a pretty bow on top and all was well back in the world with The Red Eye Virus.
To sum things up, Joe Lynch has really outdone himself. Mayhem is a refreshing take on outbreak films with just the right amount of comedy, violence, and chaos to entertain us all.
Stevie Kopas, HMS
The Horror Show Menu.