David Farnor | On 17, Jun 2022

Director: Joseph Kosinski
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller, Jurnee Smollett, Tess Haubrich, Mark Paguio
Certificate: 15

“You see? It’s your choice.” That’s the sound of Dr Steve Abnesti (Chris Hemsworth) administering his very particular brand of criminal justice in Spiderhead, Netflix’s slick and slippery new sci-fi thriller. Steve runs the titular penitentiary, but it’s far from your average detention centre, with designer furniture, a lush ocean backdrop and high-end coffee the norm. In exchange? The inmates take part in an experimental medical programme, which involves Steve flooding their systems with various drugs designed to elicit specific responses or feelings.

The concoctions range from Luvactin (stimulates romantic attraction) and Verbaluce (boosts vocabulary) to Laffodil (prompts uncontrollable laughter). Not all of them are positive, with one that induces a phobia of any object within reach and another that sends the subject spiralling into existential terror. Its name? Darkenfloxx.

If each one sounds like a market-ready product, that’s no accident and Spiderhead’s simultaneous strength and weakness is the lack of surprises going in – you don’t need a degree in biochemistry to understand that a guy operating a remote prison lab where he can perform relatively unregulated tests on convicts is no Mother Theresa. Playing out like Ex Machina meets Manic, the result isn’t as edgy, visually stunning or mind-bending as either – and that slight inhibition to fully lean into the philosophical and ethical themes of the premise means that Spiderhead is, on some levels, a missed opportunity for Deadpool screenwriters Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese (adapting a short story by George Saunders).

But that doesn’t mean that Spiderhead isn’t a lot of fun to watch, with Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski serving up just the right level of sinister gloss as he pulls the strings behind these polished, knowingly soundtracked bars. The pacing is spot-on, giving the cast just enough time to sink their teeth into the emotional conflicts beneath the surface – but hurrying things along just enough to stop anyone getting comfortable.

Miles Teller is committed and convincing as the guilt-ridden Jeff, who finds himself torn by the demands placed upon him with each new step of the experiment, and he’s supported by strong turns from Jurnee Smollett and Tess Haubrich as fellow inmates Lizzy and Heather. Mark Paguio repeatedly steals scenes as Dr Abnesti’s sidekick, who calls out his boss every time he makes a questionable decision.

Those questionable decisions happen more and more frequently, and the highlight of Spiderhead is seeing Chris Hemsworth cheerfully stroll through the kind of territory Bond villains are made of. He’s confident, chill and disarmingly upbeat, and that ability to flip-flop between determined and intimidating and callously flippant makes for an entertainingly unpredictable character study.

“You can’t say or won’t say?” Steve says to Jeff at one point, prodding him into grey areas of consent, complicity and control. “You kinda have to, you know that,” he adds, before later insisting that everyone on his island facility is there by their own free will. Tapping into everything from Milgram’s shock experiments to the Stanford prison experiment, this is an accessible, enjoyably uneasy genre piece. Deciding to stick it on your watchlist is a no-brainer.

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