Mayhem

How do I feel? I feel like taking my clothes off, I feel like causing extraordinary amounts of property damage. I feel like I wanna scream, wanna fuck, like twisting limbs. And breaking bones. I feel great Mark!

Year Released: 2017

Director: Joe Lynch

Cast: Steven Yeun, Samara Weaving, Steven Brand, Dallas Roberts, Caroline Chikezie and Irene Smythe

Samara Weaving is one of the fastest rising stars in Hollywood, especially with the recent release of “Ready or Not” (I say recent, it hasn’t actually been released in my home country of the UK yet, but I live in Portugal and it has been out there for three weeks at the time of writing) she maintains with a 100% approval rating from myself. Granted, I have only seen her in three movies prior to “Mayhem”, but I am pretty confident that the run will continue.

As I am currently on holiday in the UK to celebrate my birthday this coming Thursday, I am keen to get through a few films I have wanted to watch for a while (even if not necessarily to review) and I was genuinely surprised to see how few IMDB ratings this had, so I thought “why not?”

So here we go, can Samara’s 100% record in my book be maintained?

Plot

The ID7 virus has been created and causes the infected to lose all inhibitions, such as having sex with their date in public or killing their boss without a second thought, the latter of which ends in a major court case, but the assailant gets off on the technicality of infection. One day the virus makes its way into an office complex.

Derek (Yeun) drinks a glass of water containing it just before getting fired due to Kara (Chikezie) falsifying paperwork. He is unable to leave due to a SWAT team turning up to handle the infection. Derek is assaulted in the basement, where he meets up with Melanie (Weaving), a woman who owes money to the company, and the pair decide to get revenge on the company.

Does Samara Weaving keep up her perfect run from the films I have seen?

Following on from “The Babysitter”, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” and the upcoming (from the UK perspective) “Ready or Not”, Samara Weaving is an actress that has a promising career ahead of her. She had a perfect run with me before this…..and that run continues.

Whilst it takes a bit longer to get going than I anticipated it would to get going, I really enjoyed this movie. It is pretty much everything I look for in this type of movie. It is funny at times, brutal, has some calm, almost peaceful, moments and has sharp and witty dialogue, so much to the point where I was really struggling with which quote to put at the top of the review.

The casting of the two leads is pretty spot on, as it is with Cara. I really disliked that character and wished she would be killed sooner rather than later, and I knew that that was the moment where I was fully invested in the movie. You really get behind the central characters and want them to constantly move up throughout the building.

If anything, it feels almost like a video game movie. After the breakout of the virus, the team-up starts in the basement and the pair have to make their way up, beating various level bosses as they go, in order to get their revenge. There is a stealth section, bosses that require different methods to defeat them and twists along the way.

Summary

“Mayhem” is one of the funner movies that I have seen for some time. It is a genuine delight and highly fun. Steven Yeun and especially Samara Weaving are excellent, with the pair heading up a cast that delivers.

The movie does take some time to get going, but other than that I can’t really find any faults with the film. It has the right length and has a video game feel to it at times.

If you can find it then I would definitely recommend spending ninety minutes of your life to give it a watch.