One word sums up Netflix’s ambitions over the past decade: disruption. The streaming company has always worn the “disruptor” moniker as a badge of honour, like a brash schoolchild flicking the “V” at a crusty old headteacher. Admittedly, most of this rep came from the sheer transformative newness of streaming itself – how it changed viewing habits, making traditional broadcast TV seem antiquated and restrictive. But Netflix also spent time, and considerable money, establishing itself as a place that would commission what other platforms refused to make. This covered everything from strikingly original animations (BoJack Horseman; The Midnight Gospel) to revivals of cancelled TV gems (Arrested Development; Black Mirror) to reality shows with premises that frankly defy belief (Floor Is Lava; Is it Cake?). A $200m, three-and-a-half hour Scorsese movie that de-ages its cast by half a century? Go on then. Orson Welles’s final film, painstakingly assembled from a jumble of notes and raw footage? You got it.
On the face of it, Netflix’s latest offering, Spiderhead, ought to fit the platform like a glove. The film – about a prisoner undergoing futuristic drug trials – is a mid-budget, adult-oriented sci-fi, the sort that’s becoming a dying breed in traditional movie studios. It’s got a dark, compelling premise, a timely satirical edge, and, in Chris Hemsworth, a widely recognisable movie star. It takes place primarily within the sterile walls of the Spiderhead research compound, so it’s also relatively modest in scope; you’d imagine the film’s single biggest expense would have been Hemsworth’s salary. Tonally, it’s in line with much of the streamer’s previous output: there is a soupcon of the flash-in-the-pan hit Maniac and several dollops of Black Mirror. But Spiderhead also exposes the limits of Netflix’s “disruptor” pretentions – underneath it all, it’s not as daring as it seems.
