44
Metascore
21 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80VarietyDennis HarveyVarietyDennis HarveyAs a self-aware guilty pleasure, The Belko Experiment may not quite seize greatness, but it does give it a playful squeeze.
- 70We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoWe Got This CoveredMatt DonatoThe Belko Experiment rides a gushing wave of carnage through the elevators of an unsuspecting office building, gleefully making wolves out of sheep.
- 58The Film StageEthan VestbyThe Film StageEthan VestbyIn the hands of McClean, the film’s violence feels often overwrought instead of fun.
- 50Slant MagazineChuck BowenSlant MagazineChuck BowenThe film's characters are stock types without enough satirical texture to fulfill their function in the narrative.
- 50Screen DailyTim GriersonScreen DailyTim GriersonThe film’s down-and-dirty nastiness does have its merits, but the bloodshed isn’t nearly as interesting when the characters are as exciting as a spreadsheet.
- 42The PlaylistThe PlaylistThe film not only traps its characters, but also corners its story, with the ‘Experiment’ by Mclean and Gunn not allowing any room for variables that might bring some inventiveness to this otherwise steel-shuttered bore.
- 30TheWrapRobert AbeleTheWrapRobert AbeleThe meager tension generated by characters discovering their survival instincts, and why you might not want to be next to them when they do, is quickly dissipated by the realization that, at a certain point, the movie is an assembly line of killing, and not a terribly exciting or entertaining one at that.
- 30The New York TimesGlenn KennyThe New York TimesGlenn KennyThe Belko Experiment is a grisly, sick-making exercise in sadism that tries to camouflage its base venality in a thought-experiment plot.
- 20New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaNew York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaThe fundamental ironic juxtaposition — ultraviolence meets corporate banality — is a bludgeon that never feels fresh no matter how many times it’s driven into our aching skulls.
- 20Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlVillage VoiceAlan ScherstuhlDon't expect style or invention, much less satire. Its only interest as an experiment is that, out of duty, the roomful of critics I saw it with all stuck around until the end.