Netflix’s Tense Sci-Fi Survival Thriller Is So Perfect, It Leaves You Breathless
Written by Robert Scucci | Published
What do I do? A Classic Horror Story, The conferenceagain Oxygen are they all the same? All of them are produced around the world, the non-English speaking Netflix Originals that I wish more people knew about. Listen, I know the English dubs don’t sound right, and the subtitles can seem like a chore, but so does watching some of the stateside Netflix Originals like Cut Timewhich is a 92-minute commercial of Olive Garden and Butterfingers pretending to be a horror game for teenagers.
Oxygenone of the best sci-fi songs I have seen in a very long time, it may be a French language film, but you will be so immersed in its empty story and claustrophobic setting that you will not even notice that you are reading the dialogue on the screen, which forces you to pay attention, making it impossible to escape the unpleasant situation of its audience’.
An uncomfortable experience all around
As someone who has the guts to play a very scary game, Oxygen It brought me up because I love horror, and adding the vast emptiness of deep space to the equation makes the story even more terrifying because there is no one against the masks or the deep plot of the world the viewer is introduced to– we’re just dealing with one woman alone with her thoughts, and a super smart AI trying to guide her to a safe way of life.
As its title suggests, the main source of conflict in Oxygen it is actually a lack of oxygen. When a woman known as Liz (Melanie Laurent) wakes up crumpled up wrapped in a small medical pod in an undisclosed location, she quickly finds herself confused because the only thing she knows is that she has about 90 minutes of oxygen to find out who she is, where she is, what kind of medical test she is dealing with, and who is behind the test. With access to a supercomputer called MILO (Medical Interface Officer), Liz digs into the details in her efforts to remember who she is and how long she’s been incarcerated.
Using the limited resources he has OxygenLiz slowly but surely uncovers the origin of the pod, but is misled every step of the way whenever she uses MILO to contact the authorities, or any other outsider who may have knowledge of her situation.
Merde
Losing her sense of identity as old memories of her sick husband Leo (Malik Zidi) begin to take over the forefront of her mind, Liz puts her trust in MILO, who is not exactly a force of evil, but has been clearly instructed not to fully reveal the truth about her condition. Having to choose between going back to sleep and risking suffocation, or suffocating as she searches for answers, Liz must think quickly in her state of confusion while waiting for the authorities to rescue her, but she has no real reason to believe that help is coming anytime soon. Faced with her own death like a literal oxygen clock ticking in front of her, Liz desperately tries to remember who she is, there he is there, and that he is imprisoned voluntarily or against his will.
Powerhouse Solo Performance
Melanie Laurent has all the respect in the world from me for filming Oxygen it wouldn’t be fun by any stretch of the imagination. Sure, the pod he’s in, maybe no bigger than a bathtub, is probably more spacious than I think from a production standpoint, but it’s still a very delicate situation that made me very nervous when I realized that maybe there should be camera crews and crews on site to do it. Oxygen it is possible.
Technically off-screen theatrics, Laurent’s genuine portrayal of the fear and confusion caused by isolation will make you sweaty as you realize he’s alone and has no reason to trust anything he’s told while searching the vast database of his origin story.
Oxygen Won’t Let You Look Away
To put it plainly, Oxygen it made my skin crawl, but its sense of urgency prevented me from looking away because of how well it performed, which is admirable considering the fact that it’s about a woman alone talking with an immovable, artificially intelligent voice in a limited space.
If you’re ready to challenge yourself with one of Netflix’s original sci-flicks on the scene today, I’d strongly advise you to watch it. Oxygen in a wide, open space because if you don’t you’ll feel trapped and hopeless like Liz.
