James (Alexander Skarsgard) and Em (Cleopatra Coleman) spend their vation in an all-inclusive beach resort on the island paradise Tolqa, and there make the acquaintance of Gabi (Mia Goth) and Alban (Jalil Lespert), who persuaded them to go on a tour outside the resort - something frowned at by the resort management, as outside of the resort's fencing Tolqa's supposed to be pretty dangerous. Dangers our group of tourists don't encounter, but on their way home after a bit too much drinking, James runs over a local. Now he's all for calling the authorities, but Gabi insists on making a getaway, something James agrees to reluctantly, but after all, he doesn't want to get into trouble. Only he does, the next day he's taken in by the police and threatened with execution - only police chief Thresh (Thomas Kretschmann) makes a suggestion, for a certain amount of money, James may have himself cloned, and his clone can be executed in his stead. James agrees to this, even if he and Em have to be present at the clone's execution. After that, they want to leave Tolqa in a hurry - only now James's passport is gone. So James stays behind, and soon falls in with Gabi and Alban and their friends - who it turns out all had their clones executed at one point or another and see this as an opportunity to lead a completely lawless lifestyle for the rest of their stay on the island - after all, why would they bother if their clones take the blame? At first, James is attracted to that, and he's also attracted to Gabi, who leaves it in no uncertain terms that she's interested in him. And soon enough, he falls for their hedonistic, decadent and utterly ruthless lifestyle, but after a while he notices that his new "friends" seem him more as their plaything than as an equal and start to play cruel tricks on him. But James's attempts to escape them bear little fruit, because how can you run from someone who has a complete disregard of what's right and law on their side?

The initial premise could have been snatched from a Patricia Highsmith novel, this film however goes on a far more bizarre downward spiral, one that's horror spectacle on the outside, but wrapped around pretty bitter satire about the cruelty of humankind as such. And while the idea of cloning strictly for execution might be a far-fetched one, it works within the context of the movie, not so much as driving force but as catalyst. And a genre-savvy yet subtle directorial effort and a strong cast - especially psychotic Mia Goth leaves quite an impression - make this a pretty cool and pretty thought-provoking piece of genre cinema.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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