Circle is a horror movie that is different from the norm. When it comes to horror movies, that is a good thing as there is always room for innovation and while it is not wholly original, it puts a spin on something we have seen before and delivers a truly shocking ending in doing so. There is no nudity, no blood or gore, no action or in fact, very little movement whatsoever from the characters which appear in the film, but there is a lot of dialogue and it spans the course of the film from the start right until the very end. The premise finds fifty people in a darkened room, all in a circle and contained within circles of their own. If they try to leave, they die and every two minutes one of them dies as well. What follows is a picture rife with tension and despite most of the known horror tropes being absent, is both frightening and quite exciting.

If Circle does not feature what most come to associate with a horror film, you have to wonder just what it does sport to make you want to view it and turn it on in the first place. So it is that co-writers and co-directors Aaron Hann and Mario Miscione rely on the classic fear-of-the-unknown situation. As everyone awakens within their cells, for a prison is essentially where they are despite it being a room unlike any they have ever seen before, the people try and figure out where they are, why they are here and how to survive. Theories are thrown out left and right as everyone battles for survival for it is up to the players in this game to decide who lives and who dies and with so many different personalities at play, it makes it almost impossible to come up with anything that anyone can rely upon. The script is a smart one and it brings everything it can into the game like race, class, age, gender and more as the people battle it out. Trying to decide who deserves to live and who does not while trying to preserve your own life is a game nobody would want to play as your fate rests with the collective whole and one wrong word could mean the end of your life.

The film looks at human nature and the idea of killing and just how easy it would be for people to do so when put in an extreme situation. For the most part, all of the players are nameless as nobody wants to know who they are condemning to death, of who their potential victims might be. Even so, when you have to look a person that you are about to kill in the eye, it is not an easy thing. The film is brutal in this aspect because when it comes right down to it; people’s instinct for self-preservation is high and most will do anything to continue living no matter the cost. Nobody is safe and it adds a level of fear to the film that it would not have otherwise had should a reason for their incarceration be given or the rules spelled out.

If you enjoy horror movies, Circle is worth a watch. It is not like most horror films, though horrific it truly is. Thoroughly compelling and smart on many levels, while Circle will not scare you so that it makes your adrenaline race, it is quite disturbing and will sit with you after the movie is finished, making you wonder just what it is you would have done in a similar situation.

4 out of 5