Meander begins as many contemporary horror movies do, with a bleak landscape and determinedly moody music, in this case a turgid, overwrought faux blues adapted from the 23rd Psalm, sung by Shawn James. An empty road is seen in the deep blue color field, and in the middle of it lies Gaia Weiss’ Lisa. When she agrees to ride in a truck driven by beardo Adam (Peter Franzén), she confides to the man “I don’t want to die; I just want to see my daughter again.” This day would have been her daughter’s ninth birthday. Heavy, leaning toward fatalistic.
But oops, a radio report comes on in the truck describing a serial killer who has a cross tattooed on his right hand… and then Adam turns off the radio with his right hand with a tattooed cross on it… and then it’s blackout time.
Lisa wakes up in a steel enclosure, wearing a clingy catsuit and a bulky bracelet with a bright time readout on it. She soon figures out she has to move through a series of cylindrical tunnels in order to escape death by fire, dismemberment, acid burns, drowning, and such. The grotty corpses of those who came before her sometimes turn up in her path. They’re very grotty.
Soon she hears the voice of another human. He sounds like one of the Gumby Brothers in an old Monty Python sketch. She soon sets eyes on him. At first he looks like the “It’s…” guy played by Michael Palin who used to kick off each episode of the Python TV series. But wait… it’s Adam.
Meander (French: Méandre) is a 2020 French science fiction film written and directed by Mathieu Turi. The film debuted at the 2020 Sitges Film Festival online, and is set to be released to limited theaters and video on demand on July 9, 2021.
Meander (2021)
Directed by: Mathieu Turi
Starring: Gaia Weiss, Peter Franzén, Romane Libert, Frédéric Franchitti, Corneliu Dragomirescu, Eva Niewdanski, Carl Laforêt, Henri Benard, Fabien Houssaye, Olympe Turi
Screenplay by: Mathieu Turi
Production Design by: Thierry Jaulin
Cinematography by: Alan Duplantier
Film Editing by: Joël Jacovella
Costume Design by: Rachel Quarmby
Music by: Frédéric Poirier
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Gravitas Ventures
Release Date: October 11, 2020 (Sitges Film Festival), May 26, 2021 (France), July 9, 2021 (United States)
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