From RLJE Entertainment and director Joe Lynch (Knights of Badassdom), comes Mayhem. Starring Steven Yeun, Samara Weaving, Dallas Roberts, Steven Brand, Caroline Chikezie, André Eriksen and Kerry Fox, the film is now playing in limited theaters and VOD.
Derek Cho is having a really bad day. After being unjustly fired from his job, he discovers that the law firm’s building is under quarantine for a mysterious and dangerous virus. Chaos erupts throughout the office as the victims of the disease begin acting out their wildest impulses. Joining forces with a former client who has a grudge of her own, Derek savagely fights tooth and nail to get to the executives on the top floor and settle the score once and for all.
Mayhem is the bastard cinematic offsping if Die Hard, Crank, 28 Days Later and the TV series Suits had an orgy… Director Joe Lynch, who helmed one of my favourite metal movies of all time – Knights of Badassdom, has created his masterpiece in Mayhem – a violent opus about office workers unleashing their wildest kill fantasies and much more. After a virus is spread through an office building, the workers begin to experience symptoms of A) Not giving a fuck B) Murderous aggression C) Near zero sexual restraint and D) one really bloodshot eyeball . In a nutshell said virus turns people into psychopaths and when Derek Cho (Steven Yeun) loses his job the same day this thing infects his building, he embarks on a quest alongside a former client in Samara Weaving, to wreak havoc and kill their way up the corporate ladder since anyone infected with the virus will be found innocent as long as the crimes they commit are within the virus timeframe. It’s as if The Purge were a bad flu… A very, very bad flu.
Unlike this year’s other office building turned kill crazy action fest – The Belko Experiment, Mayhem feels like the superior story. I think that’s because there’s a very solid build-up to the titular Mayhem the film promises. We actually like Steven Yeun’s Cho and the wrongs being done to him before the virus begins to take effect, really add to his motivations to get revenge on the scumbag bosses who are knowingly fucking him over. We’ve all been there and had that job where you have no choice but to take whatever shit hand you’re dealt. Mayhem is a revenge fantasy, dialled up to eleven. We all know and loved Yeun on The Walking Dead, but make no mistake – this is not Glenn. Mayhem really puts Yeun’s acting range on display and the man is incredible. I’d be surprised if he didn’t burst several blood vessels in his face while belting out some of his lines as the virus courses through his character’s veins.
Samara Weaving is also a joy to behold. She’s like Harley Quinn — if Harley Quinn was a metalhead and used hammers to cave in people’s heads. Her partnership with Cho as he makes his way up the building to upper management might be my favourite cinematic duo of 2017. When she tells Cho as he tries to get into someone’s office that he “opens doors like her grandmother fucks” – I lost my shit. Lynch’s film is so funny, so disturbing and so damn entertaining that it easily becomes one of the year’s best films. Mayhem is the total package — action, chaos, and memorable characters. Dallas Roberts plays the creepy HR dude whose job is to fire employees and he NAILED that guy to a T. If you don’t have someone that you work with who acts like that – you aren’t living in the real world my children.
The soundtrack is vicious and loaded with killer songs, perfectly accompanied by scenes of Yeun and Weaving slaughtering their enemies amidst blood soaked office cubicles. I’m starting to think that the way Lynch uses music in his films is almost comparable to the soundtrack masters of cinema today like Matthew Vaughn, James Gunn, Rob Zombie or god himself Quentin Tarantino. If you can place a damn fine tune to a perfect movie sequence then you’ve automatically sold me. Mayhem is one of those movie experiences and if you aren’t watching it right now on iTunes then you’re missing out on one of the year’s nastiest and most delightful films.
Rating: [star rating=”5″]