One of the best thrillers from the year 2019 is still lurking in the depths of Netflix – you just have to reach deep enough to find it. At the time, no one expected this particular film to rise up and become the breakout hit that it did, but then the pandemic and lockdowns hit in 2020, and suddenly, people all over the world were ready for a horror-thriller tale that examined society’s inequities in the most extreme way possible. From that purposefully vague description, you might think we’re talking about the Korean-language hit Squid Game, but with that show’s much-hyped third and final season releasing this summer, it’s not exactly a “hidden gem.”
You may not remember all the buzz around it, but The Platform is still available to stream on Netflix, and there’s still a good chance to find out what all the hype and debate were about. Not only that, but Netflix released a sequel film, The Platform 2, just last year. So if you jump into this acclaimed series, you’ll be good for a double-feature.
Netflix’s The Platform Explained
The Platform is a film by director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, from a script by David Desola and Pedro Rivero. It imagines a bleak world where a man named Goreng (Iván Massagué) awakens to find himself in a hellish prison facility. Prisoners are paired off and arranged by floor in a stacked tower, running down to an unknowable depth. Once a day, a platform packed with food starts to descend from the top of the prison to the bottom, stopping for only two minutes before continuing down. That seemingly simple process actually creates a brutal social order of class warfare, wherein the prisoners on the top floors can raid the best food, leaving less and less for those below; they never have to see. By the time the platform reaches the bottom, there’s only crumbs and scraps for those in the darkest depths, creating a nightmare horde of ravenous marauders on the lower levels. As an inmate on Level 48, Goreng finds himself literally in the middle of the struggle, and quickly learns that the societal order isn’t as clean and ordered as it seems. Factions are forming, and those below are always scheming on ways to climb up and murder their way to a higher level in the food chain. And no one really knows what’s been brewing on the bottom floor, and could shake up the entire system, forever.
The cast of the film is made up of Spanish stars like Massagué as the lead, Goreng, and Zorion Eguileor as his cunning cellmate Trimagasi. Antonia San Juan, Emilio Buale, Elexandra Masangkay, Mario Pardo, and more all appear throughout the film playing various inmate roles.
As stated, The Platform was a mix of thrilling horror and thought-provoking socio-political concerns, which hit with perfect timing during the 2020 pandemic, when such concerns exploded to the forefront, particularly in the US. Admittedly, the sequel film The Platform 2, had far less impact, getting smacked with an absymal 35% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes, whereas the first film earned a “Certified Fresh” score of 81%. In fact, many critics and viewers all seem to agree: The Platform 2 represents one of the steepest dropoffs in quality between a first and second movie this side of Highlander 2, or 2 Fast 2 Furious. Still, the first film is one of the better original horror-thriller concepts that we’ve seen in years, and is definitely worth the streaming time.
NOTE: The Platform is a Spanish-language film and requires subtitles. However, there is a reliable English-language dub track for those inclined.
The Platform 1 & 2 are streaming on Netflix.
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