A horrifying thought — what if Alzheimer’s was contagious, spreading as fast as Omicron variant of COVID19? This is the basic plot setup for the newly released movie Glasshouse, an intriguing sci-fi thriller that uses its concept to tell a small and mysterious story instead of one huge science fiction spectacle. It made its debut at the Fantasia International Film Festival and also had a screening at Sci-Fi London but it’s more Harold Pinter than William Gibson – a blending of indie sci-fi, modern murder mystery, and one-act play.
This is hardly a bad thing (any reference to Pinter is high praise), with the film receiving positive reviews and sitting around 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. The Guardian describes it as “sinister, seductive meditation on memory, desire and loss” and Glasshouse will certainly appeal to people who love deep thinking or intellectual science fiction.
Glasshouse is set in post-apocalyptic South Africa within what could be described as a compound – greenhouses connected with sleeping chambers surrounded primarily by fortifying structures such as guard towers. When the film starts, there is this young lady dressed in a flowing white robe backed by an industrial gas mask shooting trespassers using her rifle. His dead body would be put on display on one of those tables which are often used for various rituals within the family cultish kind of compound.
The family led by Mother (Adrienne Pearce) includes well-meaning but naïve Bee (Jessica Alexander), Evie who comes off sternly defensive (Anja Taljaard), Daisy who’s still young yet smart (Kitty Harris) plus Gabe whose frustrated-suffering-silent persona has something peculiar about how he acts like someone whose gone through that deadly pandemic called Shred and consequently has some form of dementia. These people protect the compound where all entrances are sealed with plastic all-round hence they shoot trespassers: most bodies being used as manure and food. They sit in their watch towers in shifts, armed and masked.
However, at night Bee does the same thing except she is not just searching for trespassers. One day her brother wandered off and never came back so she often waits for him to come home most nights with a flashlight that flickers like maybe he once knew such codes but doesn’t know if he would ever recognize anything again if the Shred came upon him. Thereafter a trespasser (The Stranger played by Hilton Pelser) enters the compound but before Bee shoots him, he collapses. She brings his body inside the glasshouse and tends to his bleeding wounds where her relatives and some members of her family are amazed while others are scared.
How much has The Stranger forgotten? Has he brought the Shred in with him? What does he know about the outside world? Can he be trusted? Can anyone even trust themselves? These are questions that will plague an Edenic post-apocalyptic family after they have been invaded or raided by a stranger because also that is how an immune system becomes debilitating or disarrayed when faced with toxins. Consequently, viewers remain uncertain throughout this psychological thriller as to who is speaking what’s true, who might be manipulating someone else’s mind and whose memories are truly real.
Emma Lungiswa de Wet and Kelsey Egan, the writers, do a great job of creating increasing suspense mainly through their characters’ conversations. However, they use their science fiction concept as an avenue for a chamber drama (which is fitting since this term usually refers to theatre and Glasshouse often feels like a stage play). Egan’s direction on the other hand continues to maintain cinema suspensefulness and inventiveness that could not happen in theater. She weaves abrupt cuts and sound design into her work interrupting its otherwise dreamy flow, she handled close-ups and reverse shots quite well building intrigue by focusing on reactions.
The whole film has a dreamy quality to it with light filtering through stained glass/plastic walls that create a hazy background haze while some odd dialogue (punctuated by dementia or shrouded in half-truths) sets this mood. The incongruities in the movie also add to its misty surrealism whereby green grasses and gardens plus Victorian dresses worn by women mostly give Glasshouse touchable feeling like texture organic, though that softness is covered by menace plus horror which arises from the ever-present dystopian environment of Shred alongside polite cannibalism.
As such, it combines elements of Panic at Hanging Rock’s mysterious dreaminess; The Beguiled’s inclusion of lone males into female groups; A Quiet Place post-apocalyptic family struggle; Pinter plays Homecoming or Birthday Party power fights staged using subtle dialogues. The viewer almost feels like a victim of the Shred throughout the film, rarely certain of what’s true, lost in a foggy daze that’s simultaneously sinister and pretty.
Thus unfolds fascinating power struggle during the course of the movie which is cleverly handled very realistically where certain characters manipulate others relying on their forgetfulness to gain dominance over them through lying. In addition Glasshouse offers up subtleties throughout many unexpected twists and revelations in its plot, none of which are ever cheap or gimmicky. It would be unfortunate to spoil this concise and effective little thriller by divulging too much about the plot, especially the chilling ending.
The acting is great all around with actors playing characters that are both seductive and scheming while engaged in dialogue that feels true to each of them and has a kind of living quality. The way they talk is integral to the world-building in Glasshouse, using words as clues to release elements of story or fill in facts about this dementia-infested, madness-ridden dystopian world. Think more words than world when it comes to creation here; it’s like ‘word-building’ using language as a means for constructing an odd, difficult puzzle.
Their technology is hazy on what lies beyond the compound while their year could be 920, 2022 or even 4010 and these women might either be some of the last people alive on earth or just another cult out there hiding amidst forest lunatics. In Glasshouse however one can find some amusement from trying to decode what is real just like victims of the Shred may do.
It is true that one man’s meat is another man’s poison, so it can be said that Glasshouse is not for the faint-hearted. As already stated, this film is more of a psychological drama than it is a genre exercise and as such it is mature as well as downbeat. It does not have action set pieces or sweeping moments like many films do, sometimes it even gets deliberately awkward and disturbing which are not aspects enjoyed by fans of blood and horror movies. That way, what we get in this case is Glasshouse complicated independent serious movie about things that matter. The writing and editing of Glasshouse are intellectually stimulating.
Obviously, the director picks on Corona virus pandemic issues and also our age of “post-truth” where everyone is always right or wrong at any given moment. It captures the paranoia many citizens feel in a world seemingly off its track, where conspiracy theories are more popular (and, to some, believable) than ever and outsiders and ‘the other’ is feared to border wall-building degrees. What I am saying here is that Glasshouse speaks to a schizophrenic era marked by mistrust and manipulation; an era where confused and misinformed persons can be led into believing anything or doing anything by Machiavellian machinations of powerful elites (or regular idiots).
Sometimes there seems to be no end in sight with global viruses mingling like college kids on spring break—only plateaus before new spikes. For example, the new COVID variant BA.5 allegedly combines Omicron’s worst features with the severity of Delta; again the cry out there has been “will this ever end?” Thus Glasshouse may just be among top-notched movies within COVID-era cinema reflecting prevailing fears while carrying traumatic imprints pandemics have left within cultural lexicon. Packed with contemporary issues but told through timeless truths all woven together into one suspenseful package covering large parts of humanity today, it is suspenseful.
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