By Robert Scucci
| Published
If we all had access to those nifty little drug-administering pouches from 2022’s Spiderhead, I’m not sure we’d ever recover as a society. In the movie, pharmaceutical experiments are conducted in a controlled environment, and even then the whole operation spirals into chaos. In real life, if everybody could lower their inhibitions, laugh on command, and exploit every single pleasure sense through a mobile app, bridges would stop being built and nobody would be working at hospitals. That’s how powerful the drugs are in Spiderhead.
As you’ll soon see, nothing good could come from the kind of psychological experimentation depicted in Spiderhead, especially when those experiments are run by a man whose intent is dubious at best and nefarious at worst. The subjects are technically willing participants, but the conditions that lead them to volunteer will make you question who’s really in the wrong here.
A Minimum Security Drug Prison
Set entirely on the titular penitentiary, Spiderhead places its focus on an inmate named Jeff (Miles Teller). Serving time for involuntary vehicular manslaughter, Jeff participates in psychological experiments run by Steve Abnesti (Chris Hemsworth) in exchange for a reduced sentence. Steve is working on a love drug known as N-40, which causes its subjects to become insatiably aroused, and the experiments are wildly successful. Or so they think.
After repeated, controlled sexual encounters under the influence of N-40, Jeff is asked which one of his partners should be subjected to a drug named Darkenfloxx, which causes extreme psychological torment when administered through their MobiPaks (the technical name for those nifty little pouches). Unable to choose, because N-40 only works short-term and generates intense feelings of lust without affection, Steve and his assistant Mark (Mark Paguio) conduct the Darkenfloxx experiment on a woman named Heather, who kills herself in less than five minutes.
Becoming increasingly suspicious of Steve’s motives, Jeff confides in Lizzy (Jurnee Smollett), another inmate he’s close with. Catching on to Jeff’s romantic feelings toward Lizzy, Steve pushes him to continue the experiment using her as the test subject, which blows the whole operation wide open. Though he was willing to comply in exchange for less jail time, Jeff draws a line in the sand when somebody he actually cares about could be put in danger. Steve is actively trying to see if he can manipulate somebody into killing their love, and Jeff no longer wants anything to do with it.
Cool Concept That Bumbles Execution
While Spiderhead has a lot going for it when you consider its concept and the talent involved, it falls flat because it doesn’t feel like a fully fleshed-out idea. While the angle surrounding Chris Hemsworth’s Steve Abnesti is explored to its logical conclusion, there’s so much more to unpack that barely gets touched.
The whole “big pharma is evil” plot is something we’ve all seen before, but there’s a better story here that never fully comes into focus. The more interesting angle is Jeff’s willingness to participate in these experiments when the subjects are people he barely knows, only to do a complete 180 when somebody he actually cares about is on the table. Pharma bros are going to do what pharma bros do, but it’s far more compelling to look at what kind of torture someone is willing to put another person through for the sake of self-preservation.
Jeff is far from innocent in Spiderhead. We know he accidentally killed his friend and girlfriend while driving drunk, and now he’s serving his time at an experimental prison. But he’s also taking the easy way out without ever having to take a long, hard look at himself. Instead, he’s working alongside his captor, pumping people full of drugs and waiting to see what happens in exchange for less jail time. The beats are all there for a deeper character study on Jeff, but the film keeps its focus on how unethical Steve is, which feels like a disservice to the story.
A solid concept that doesn’t quite stick the landing, Spiderhead is an interesting watch, but it’s hard to root for a protagonist who’s not very likable by design. If Jeff had more depth, we would have gotten a much more compelling story about compliance, ethics, and self-preservation. Instead, we get a movie that’s packed with talent but never fully realizes its potential.
Spiderhead is a Netflix original and can be streamed with an active subscription.
