There’s something very natural about the overlap between sci-fi and horror. The big “what if” questions that the first genre asks lend themselves really nicely to the dread conjured up by the latter, which is why some of the best sci-fi movies ever are properly scary (from Alien to John Carpenter’s The Thing).
Netflix has clearly paid enough attention to make that connection, too, and it just unveiled a new original movie coming on 10 July that seems to blend the two genres impressively. Brick tells a claustrophobic story set in one apartment block, as revealed by a great first trailer, although the movie has one clear flaw already.
The idea here is one of those lovely simple ones – a couple are having a raging row that ends with one of them ending things and trying to storm off. Only, when she opens the door, she finds it bricked up with strange and impenetrable metal bricks. They soon discover the windows similarly closed up, and realise they’re trapped.
Eventually, they break through their floor to discover people in other apartments have made the same discovery, at which point they band together to try to figure out what on earth’s happening. It’s a great mystery, and there’s doubtless a bigger plot at play for them to figure out. Simple concepts like this one can so often be the most memorable when well executed.
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Still, though, I mentioned the movie having one flaw, and it’s hopefully one you’ll be able to avoid when you watch it. This whole trailer is in English, but at a certain point you’ll realise that it’s dubbed over the original language (German). That’s a baffling choice given how many non-English hits Netflix has produced in recent years. Thankfully, the movie will almost certainly have the option of its original German audio when it’s streaming.
This isn’t the first time Netflix has chosen to dub a trailer to make it have a wider appeal, and it won’t be the last, but I hope that more viewers choose the original version. After all, even the best dubbing tends to lose something from the original performances.
