Gemma veers between protective affection and hate at this cuckoo in their nest. The couple find a kid they name Boy and raise him for nine months, not knowing he's part of the alien conspiracy. But maybe there's a twist or more to the story. Sorry, there was a problem with your subscription. But the cinematography and production design keep the film vibrant. A young couple, trapped in an endless suburbia are forced to care for a child, fall into monotonous routines. Boy doesn't kill her, he just bags her up and tosses her in a hole with Tom, gets in their car and replaces Martin at the agency to entrap another unsuspecting couple. Yay, lack of imagination. WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Vivarium. The Vivarium spoiler is that humans are trapped, using the bait of low-cost homes, by a species (alien or otherwise) to bring up a non-human child as a human (this is in the same sense as a cuckoo chick that tricks another bird into raising its young). Vivarium deals with an extraterrestrial invasion, but unfortunately the aliens involved look and sound bland. 'Domestication, what a meaningless curse.' To the film’s credit, the alien-ness is effective, lending Vivarium the tenseness of a horror movie and engaging the audience where the story fails. Business-wise, I make big cheddar (not really) as a copywriter and digital strategist working with some of the top brands in the Latin America region. He throws himself into the task of digging a hole in their yard, a futile attempt at breaking out. Once they grow up, the parents either commit suicide or are killed by the Boys, and then, the aliens head out of Yonder and assimilate into the real world. Eisenberg’s New York neurotic persona seems a glib performance until it cracks, as Tom becomes obsessed with digging under their garden, trying to locate a physical end to their nightmare like an increasingly ragged prisoner of war. Let’s just say…there are more actors in this movie and this is a science fiction-driven website. A young couple looking for the perfect home find themselves trapped in a mysterious labyrinth-like neighborhood of identical houses. But the sci fi plot seems to play second fiddle to the heavy handed real message that the suburbs suck and its residents' lives don't matter. For more, make sure you’re following us on our new Instagram @io9dotcom. Click the button below to start this article in quick view. There’s no bigger commentary on adulthood on Finnegan’s mind; rather, Vivarium is dedicated to its alien scares. After being left there by Martin (Jonathan Aris), a shady real estate agent, they can't escape the maze and alwas find themselves back at "#9." The set-up for the science-fiction thriller Vivarium seems ripe for allegory. Starring Imogen Poots, Jesse Eisenberg, Senan Jennings, Jonathan Aris and Eanna Hardwicke, Vivarium is now available through major VOD services. Poots manages to bring some depth to Gemma as she grows sympathetic to the boy and tries to make the best out of the situation. Hard. Vivarium is a sci-fi thriller available now online. Buying a house sucks, but it has never, ever been as bad as it is in Vivarium. It does not have a release date. Eisenberg, given less to work with as Tom grows increasingly distant (and physically violent) and thereby more out of the picture, feels miscast as a semi-tough guy. It revolves around Tom (Jesse Eisenberg) and Gemma (Imogen Poots) as they're duped into visiting a housing settlement in England called Yonder. Sex is greedily grabbed till it sinks into routine, then indifference. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. The first comes when Gemma asks the kid where he's been sneaking off to and who he's been speaking to. Politeness and property addiction dampen their qualms about “creepy little mutant” agent Martin, who abandons them in the Yonder suburban estate, where, it turns out, you can check in but never leave.