On Netflix, the science fiction thriller “The Circle” is a gem that few have discovered so far. MyMMO author Schuhmann explains the appeal of the film and why it reminds him of the South Korean hit series “Squid Game.”
This is the idea of “The Circle”: In the film “The Circle,” 50 people stand in a circle around a construct that kills someone with a lightning strike every 2 minutes. Through gestures, the participants vote on who will be targeted and who will die next.
The working hypothesis that the “participants” arrive at after 5 or 6 deaths is: If only one person is left at the end, that person survives because one cannot choose themselves and no one is there to vote for them.
“The Circle” is like Squid Game, but even more merciless
Why does this remind us of Squid Game? Like in Squid Game, viewers quickly enter a tactical thinking game mode and contemplate what strategy they would pursue if they found themselves in such a situation.
The film ruthlessly plays out various scenarios and shows what happens when one follows plausible or typically human strategies:
- It quickly becomes clear that one does not want to stand out, cause any issues, or appear as a threat to others.
- But does one just want to remain silent and risk dying next purely by chance?
- Choosing the “seemingly right path” and advocating that a pregnant woman or a little girl should be the last survivor inevitably leads to one’s own death.
How much this “How would I survive this?” fascinates viewers is evident from the existence of a YouTube video with 11 million views on the topic “How to defeat the death game in The Circle” (via youtube).
The difference from Squid Game is that in “The Circle,” there is only one game that runs continuously and mercilessly. The clock is ticking, and every two minutes, the next vote is due. There are no breaks or time for private conversations, as in the Korean hit series.
Instead, controversial topics are negotiated in conversation with the group: Should it matter if one has a family, a good job, or belongs to an ethnic minority? And can this even be verified, or do people just tell something that makes them appear much better than they actually are?
There is no star who is “safe”
This is what makes “The Circle” special: The film does not feature any well-known actors. It was made in 2015, and no one from the cast has really become a star in the years since. This benefits the film because no one is safe, and the most important person in one sequence can already be the next one lying dead on the ground, pulled out of the circle by an invisible force.
Here, you can’t say: Oh, he has already won 3 Oscars, he will surely survive until the end.
The lack of star power is also responsible for the film having remained almost completely under the radar until today. As the directors told in an AMA on reddit, many publishers were interested in the film, but no one really wanted to distribute a film with 50 unknown actors. That’s where Netflix came in at the right time.
Where can you watch this? “The Circle” is streaming on the subscription service Netflix. It is available only in English, but there are German subtitles.
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