Spiderhead

Spiderhead

A prisoner in a state-of-the-art penitentiary begins to question the purpose of the emotion-controlling drugs he's testing for a pharmaceutical genius.

  • Released: 2022-06-17
  • Runtime: 105 minutes
  • Genre: Action, Thrillers
  • Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller, Jurnee Smollett, Tess Haubrich, BeBe Bettencourt, Angie Miliken, Jane Larkin, Ron Smyck, Joey Vieira, Elke Hinrichsen, Sam Delich, Mark Paguio, Daniel Reader, Ashleigh Lawrence, Stephen Tongun, Rachel Forsyth, Jariah Travan, Regan Sharp, Elliot Chenery, Aykut Karacam, Wyomi Reed, Nathan Jones
  • Director: Joseph Kosinski
 Comments
  • khemass - 24 February 2024
    An entertaining sci-fi movie, I think it's underrated
    I think this is a good entertainment and I enjoyed watching it most of the time. The story, the performance, the effects and overall production was fine and I didn't feel that Hemsworth or Teller were miscast. They did well in their role and add delicate and interesting personality to their characters.

    The story is interesting and I respect a sci-fi story that admits science can be evil. We watch how these participants were treated by those drugs and it kept getting weirder and creepier. We saw natural romance blooming between a man and a woman who were inmates volunteered to be experimented on. We see a young scientist who seems friendly and polite, yet we learn more and more that he is obsessed with his work and he himself is not a happy person at all. It was as if he is jealous of the happiness of people around him. We saw that his assistant is also unhappy about this experiment but didn't dare to speak up. Things I saw on this film kept my interest most of the time and one particular actress who plays an inmate tortured in the experiment could perform very well and that scene scared and and tortured me as a viewer, too.

    The bad thing about this film is the final scene, as though it was produced and directed by a different person. Why that annoying song in the background? Why making the ending look like a comedy when the rest of the film has been serious? I was disappointed with how the ending was presented, not the story itself.
  • glyeakley - 30 July 2023
    What a Dumb Idea
    This idea should have been killed at conception. This pitch should have been left on the table. I've never before reviewed a film without seeing it but I'm doing it here do for the simple reason that the short story "Escape from Spiderhead," by George Saunders (author of Licoln in the Bardo) is perfect, and un-filmable. Anyone with any sense would know this. It would be like a film adaptation of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." "Who should we get to play Prufrock...?" Please don't judge me for not bothering to sit through it. Just listen to those who did to see how right I am. Read the story instead.
  • SnoopyStyle - 11 December 2022
    sci-fi thriller
    Spiderhead is a penitentiary and research facility run by scientist Steve Abnesti (Chris Hemsworth). He's using prisoner volunteers for his experiments to control emotions. Jeff (Miles Teller) and Lizzy (Jurnee Smollett) are two of those volunteers.

    This is a sci-fi thriller. It has some feel of Ex Machina. The premise has some potential, but very little of it is fully realized. It's not that thrilling. It's not really that edgy. It has some good actors. The story never really takes off. Instead of volunteers, I would make them prisoners forced to participate. That would insert the edgy possibility of escape. This needs more edge.
  • todd-136-941782 - 20 October 2022
    Takes medical testing to a whole new level
    This felt a lot like a remake of Ewan McGregor's, The Island without anywhere near the budget.

    I also enjoyed a couple of young Hollywood stars taking aim at medical testing and vaccinations in general. As we are now finding out, the Covid vaccine isn't very good for your health and doesn't prevent you from becoming infected.

    I think this movie would have benefited from some additional funding for the screenplay. At times the story got lost and meandered aimlessly before getting on track.

    Miles Teller is going to win a best actor award at some point but it won't be for Spiderhead.

    Hemsworth was okay but didn't really deliver a strong performance. I think he has some dramatic acting chops in there somewhere but he drifts back and forth between smart-ass and trying to be a serious actor and misses both.
  • yahaira-729-694701 - 13 September 2022
    Likable b flick if you are on altered states
    Perhaps another promicing netflix script but nice not great. The actors are good attractive recently popular for younger generations to appeal to. For a scify flick its superficial ,light coligent, and academic perhaps thats the targeted audience? Lots of sex experiments rather than true emotions. I dont see the monsters, aliens, or future progressive elements in this world just a messy portrayal as frankinstein losses his sh---t. Its boring at 25 minuets into it. I am ready to fast forward it. Get through it see if it gets better, sound track moves it along. These are snipets of different unrelated character scenes of subjects under the drugs for the experiment at the vague pleasure of Steve the head behavior scientist who is playing with his " lab rats". It gets out of hand or does it, thats the paradox which is finally introduced mid through the story. The script introduces the viewer to a world distorted by chemicals. Like, what is reality, the one that is bent by pot smoking or pills , like the choice of the red pill or the blue pill a matrix cliche, that protects us from the harsh truth. Somehow redemption helps the convict subjects along the road of towards healing. I may be wrong but its a a terrible B movie. I guess the title tells it all. So many movies are rated 5 lately thats depressing. What happened to good artistic engaging work?. Streaming servicess have ruined movie watching time to go watch colombo or farscape.