Creeptober Day 4: The Platform 2
For day 4 of Creeptober, take a trip back into The Pit in The Platform 2, an excellent sequel to a standout movie.
There are a lot of new horror movies coming out this October. So, for day four of Creeptober, we decided to pick one of the newest movies available. The Platform 2 began streaming on Netflix in the early morning hours of October 4th, so it’s about as new as it gets. Hopefully you’ve joined us in watching this brand-new thriller, because it’s quite good, and it has enough horror elements to qualify it as a solid choice for Halloween-time viewing.
Read on for our thoughts on The Platform 2 as well as a recap of the movie, and join the conversation on our Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.
Reacting to The Platform 2
The first movie, The Platform, was released on Netflix in 2020. It was a hit upon arrival, and for good reason. The Platform is a smart—if somewhat obvious—critique about society. It’s not subtle in its execution of its political commentary, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s a movie that poses an interesting dilemma and represents it in a way that is brutal and entertaining. The Platform 2 is similar in that respect.
The Platform 2 delivers much of the same style of brutality and crystal-clear commentary, this time tackling religion much more heavily than in the first movie. In this sequel, The Pit is basically a theocracy ruled by faith in someone people believe is divinely appointed as a ruler. Or rather, the Anointed One is divinely appointed as an enforcer of the laws which he, and he alone, interprets. It’s an interesting twist that allows this sequel to feel very much like the first movie, while still standing up as its own thing.
This movie does reveal more about how The Pit operates, but thankfully it still leaves a lot of it as a mystery. Explaining too much about the hows and whys of The Pit would probably ruin a lot of what makes it so interesting. Thinking about why we think The Pit exists is a big part of the movie. Also, explaining the mechanics of how everything works would take away from the personal story of the main character. Both Platform movies already feature a lot of exposition that has to be made in order for the social structure to make sense, so even more scenes of explanations would get tedious. The Platform 2 finds a just-right balance between explanation and emotion.
As for the horror aspects, The Platform 2 is more brutal than the first movie. At least, that’s how I see it. Both movies get bloody, but this one is even meaner when it comes to the violence. A few scenes in particular stand out, but I don’t want to spoil them here.
I also love something about this movie that I don’t want to hint too much at. All I’ll say is that you must watch The Platform before you watch The Platform 2. It’s essential to get the most out of this sequel. I won’t say anything else here, but anyone who wants to discuss it elsewhere, I’d be happy to get into it.
So yes, since this just came out today, it was a first-time viewing. Obviously. And I enjoyed it immensely. I stayed up late to see it as soon as it hit Netflix, and it was totally worth it. I hope this does as well as the first movie, because I’d love to see what they could possibly do for a threequel.
The Platform 2 – A Recap
Since The Platform 2 is so new, I won’t spoil the ending or some of the biggest plot points. Even so, this recap does have some significant spoilers.
Like the movie that came before it, The Platform 2 takes place in The Pit, a multi-level structure made up of 333 floors. Each floor is a small, concrete room with an open shaft in the middle. The rooms are basically prison cells. The bare necessities of two beds, a toilet, and access to water are provided on each floor. Once a day, a floating platform carrying food descends through every level via the open shaft, stopping briefly in each room. Each month begins with two people placed on almost every floor. After a month, the inhabitants of The Pit are switched to different rooms. They don’t know where they’ll end up, but they do keep their same cellmate (unless their cellmate dies during the month).
At the beginning of The Platform 2, Perempuán (Milena Smit) wakes up on level 24 of The Pit. The floors are numbered 1 to 333, ordered from top to bottom, so floor 24 is lucky as far as obtaining food is concerned. The lower the level, the less of a chance there will be any food remaining on the platform. In her first few days, Perempuán learns about a system of laws put in place to ensure everyone eats. The laws are strict, and enforcement is harsh. Anyone found breaking the law is dealt with swiftly and brutally.
Though Perempuán’s cellmate Zamiatan (Hovik Keuchkerian) is hesitant about the laws, Perempuán buys into the system. One day, a believer who has faith in the laws—a person known as a loyalist—tells Perempuán about the Anointed One. He is a man who is said to have had direct contact with the Master who first created the Law. Some people refer to the Master as the Messiah, and they follow his teachings with unwavering devotion. The Master is said to have sent a message of hope long ago, and he survived without food while feeding his own flesh to his followers.
Perempuán and Zamiatan survive the first month together, but the next month they find themselves all the way down on floor 180. Zamiatan becomes sick, and his guilt over breaking some of the Master’s laws drives him to self-immolation. The next month, Perempuán wakes up on floor 51 with a new cellmate. She believes her cellmate is new to The Pit and tries to instruct her in the laws.
As the month moves along, the loyalists on the floor below Perempuán prepare to travel down on the platform to subdue lawbreakers they refer to as “barbarians.” But when the platform arrives on 51, Perempuán’s cellmate insists that the two of them travel down to enforce the law themselves. They both go, but the cellmate doesn’t actually care about the barbarian. Rather, she wanted to travel down to avoid the arrival of someone named Dagin Babi, the man known as the Anointed One. She tells Perempuán about how Dagin Babi made an example out of her and her former cellmate in a horrific way after they tried to help someone, despite being loyalists themselves.
Perempuán learns of Dagin Babi’s brutality firsthand when he arrives with a group of loyalists. Disillusioned, angry, and hurt, Perempuán begins to rebel against the law. She quickly gains a following of like-minded people, and it’s only a matter of time before her “barbarians” and Dagin Babi’s loyalists come into direct conflict. There is much more to the story after that, but I’ll end this recap here so as not to completely spoil everything.
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