Movie review
September 10, 2016 · 89 min · R
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
The Belko Experiment is a 2016 horror thriller in which 80 American office workers in Bogotá are sealed inside their building by an unknown voice and ordered to kill each other in escalating numbers or face mass death via implanted explosives. The story examines human behavior, survival instincts, and group dynamics in a confined deadly game with dark humor and graphic violence. There are no audience-visible woke elements such as identity politics, forced representation emphasis, activist dialogue, or modern social justice framing in the narrative, marketing, or creator statements.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for The Belko Experiment.
Woke representation / casting
The ensemble cast mixes white and Hispanic actors in roles that logically fit American expats in a Colombian office; no forced diversity, identity signaling, or story mismatches.
Woke political dialogue
All dialogue concerns immediate survival choices, authority obedience, and self-interest with no political, activist, or identity-related content.
Identity-driven story themes
Themes are universal human depravity and survival under pressure; no arcs or messaging driven by race, gender, sexuality, or identity groups.
Western institutional / cultural critique
The central premise indicts a fictional corporation's dehumanizing control and lethal experiments on workers as a thriller hook, but presents generic anti-authority satire without activist identity framing or cultural critique.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
No documented backlash claiming the title promotes woke, activist, identity-political, or left-wing messaging; complete absence of such complaints in coverage.
Creator track record context
Neither James Gunn nor Greg McLean has a cited history of making identity-driven, activist, or politically themed projects that aligns with this film.
Production
