Netflix’s The Platform: everything you need to know about the critically-acclaimed horror movie

Netflix’s The Platform: everything you need to know about the critically-acclaimed horror movie

Credit: Netflix

Under Her Eye


Netflix’s The Platform: everything you need to know about the critically-acclaimed horror movie

By Kayleigh Dray

5 years ago

This terrifyingly relevant Netflix film is already trending on Twitter – and for good reason.

There’s nothing we love more than a good Netflix horror, as our fascination with Ares, Typewriter and The Haunting of Hill House has well and truly proven. Now, the streaming platform has another terrifying film to add to the mix: The Platform.

The Platform premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the People’s Choice Award for Midnight Madness. Since then, it has racked up a cool 82% ‘fresh’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes – and, just a few days ago, it was finally unveiled to the public via Netflix.

Suffice to say, people were very excited. So much so, in fact, that The Platform has been steadily trending on Twitter ever since.

“This is scary on so many levels,” wrote one excited horror fan.

Another added: “Just finished The Platform on Netflix and wow. An experience.”

And still one more pointed out that The Platform feels frighteningly relevant in the age of Covid-19, linking its themes to the coronavirus-induced panic buying we have witnessed on a global scale.

“Just finished watching The Platform on Netflix and I’m wrecked and.. I need to lie down. You know it’s a good one when it’s that impactful. It was extreme and hard to watch but has a relevant message apt in these desperate times. 12/10 highly recommended,” wrote one.

“If everyone ate only what they needed, the food would reach the lowest levels,” another viewer quoted via Twitter.

We completely agree, to be honest.

Intrigued? Here’s everything you need to know about Netflix’s The Platform.

What’s the plot of Netflix’s The Platform?

The Platform focuses on a collection of prisoners in a stacked prison where the only food available to inmates is the leftovers of those people above them. Of course, this doesn’t bode well for prisoners in the lower levels.

Some starve to death. Some brutally attack their fellow inmates in order to get their hands on the food they so desperately need. And some partake in a little (un)healthy cannibalism. 

Netflix's The Platform

Credit: Netflix

Essentially, it’s a nightmare – one entirely focused on the worst impulses of human nature to abandon people in the service of your own needs.

Is there a trailer for Netflix’s The Platform?

Absolutely, and it’s seriously disturbing.

Check it out:

Who is in the cast of Netflix’s The Platform?

The Spanish film’s cast includes Iván Massagué, Antonia San Juan, Zorion Eguileor, Emilio Buale Coka and Alexandra Masangkay.

Who directed Netflix’s The Platform?

The film is the directorial debut of Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia.

What are critics saying about Netflix’s The Platform?

Only good things, as it happens. Now’s Norman Wilner said the “high-concept horror movie” is “grotesque and compelling, like grindhouse Buñuel. And it never blinks.”

Elsewhere, Variety’s Amy Nicholson wrote that The Platform’s “minimalist fury feels like the plays of Samuel Beckett.” Cinapse’s Dan Tabor said the film’s “shocking and cerebral nature” is a genre game-changer. And Fotogramas’ Mireia Mullor branded the “conceptual dystopia” as “impeccable”.

Essentially, the critics love it. All that remains to be seen, we guess, is whether the general public will, too.

Why are people comparing Netflix’s The Platform to Parasite?

Much like Parasite – which was named Best Picture at the 2020 Academy AwardsThe Platform is a sharp social satire, taking a sideways look at the damage caused by our class system.

When is The Platform going to be available on Netflix?

The film has been available to stream since 20 March.

Images: Netflix

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