Vivarium

Right now you can watch Vivarium in Australia on Amazon Prime Video and Foxtel Now, and in the US on Amazon Prime Video and Philo — and it goes further with its ideas than most genre entertainment bothers to. It says what it needs to say in one sitting, no filler. With 2,611 viewer ratings on TMDB, this is not a title flying under the radar. Watch it for Imogen Poots — the performance elevates material that could easily tip into self-seriousness. Available now on Amazon Prime Video — press play and find out why people keep recommending it.

Vivarium arrived without much fanfare and built its audience the hard way — through word of mouth. What makes Vivarium work is that the ideas never crowd out the people having them. A young woman and her fiancé are in search of the perfect starter home. After following a mysterious real estate agent to a new housing development, the couple finds themselves trapped in a maze of identical houses and forced to raise an otherworldly child. The human element stays intact thanks to Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg, who anchor every scene. It was released in 2019. What separates Vivarium from lesser genre entertainment is a willingness to let the concept cost the characters something. It knows exactly what it is, and does not try to be anything else.

For late-night viewing or a proper weekend binge, Vivarium fits the bill. It has built its own audience without needing a direct comparison. It is a manageable watch, easy to fit into a single evening. Imogen Poots anchors it with a performance that makes the more abstract moments feel personal. If you have been burned by ambitious sci-fi before, this is the exception.