There is an outbreak of lethal influenza and people are taking refuge in underground bunkers. We’ve been there before, right? Except for this time, to prevent any form of contagion from the “Saharan flu”, the 500 000 persons who have randomly won their ticket to salvation are completely isolated from each other in individual bunkers. Survival Laboratories Corporation, who built the facilities, have thought of everything: there is a social network, called Domain (and the title of the movie by director Nathaniel Atcheson), linking individuals selected as mutually compatible (according to the corporation algorithm) in closed groups of seven. This grouping is a function of personalities rather than proximity, the characters we get acquainted with are physically scattered throughout the United States and like a cruel reminder of the distance between them, they refer to each other by their location: Phoenix, Denver, Boston, Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, and Orlando.

It’s been five years since the outbreak and Orlando has been nothing but an obnoxious jerk, even to the point of bragging about his violent past. Denver has managed to hack the mainframe and the group uneasily decides to “ban” Orlando from their Domain by cutting his feed. Eight months later, the system starts acting up, breeding paranoia and anxiety in the group. Has the exclusion of Orlando broken the balance of Domain? Or is the outside world collapsing for good? Phoenix is determined to answer those questions, even if it means losing the few things she has, like the long-distance, screen-mediated romance she has developed with Denver.

Domain is a brilliant example of how science fiction can turn an old story, survival horror, upside down by introducing some techno-culture device, like cyberpunky social networking. The survivors suffer from triple isolation: globally by being cut from the rest of the world, physically due to the individuality of the bunkers and geographically by the locations of the members of their Domain. But by isolating its characters, Domain achieves exactly the opposite, that is to say, a narrative about relations and communication. Is the world really what is shown to you on a screen? Who exactly are those with whom you are interacting with on a social network? And what about you? Is a live feed enough to tell the truth? Domain may be a survival thriller, but in many ways it is closer to Nineteen Eighty-Four than to 28 Days Later.

Some production details are well thought out and worth mentioning. One that is particularly striking, is how the color palette of the photography is dominated by desert tones, orange, brown and beige, thus indicating that the “Saharan flu” is affecting the lives of the survivors no matter what. The hexagonal shape found in the Domain logo and in the ceiling lights reiterates the number “6”, coinciding with the six feeds on the split-screen. Each bunker is equipped with an exercise machine, the use of which provides essential electricity to the system, thus forcing teamwork and a certain sense of community. On a more meta-discursive level, Denver reads No Exit, Sartre’s existentialist play about death and judgment, famous for the sentence “Hell is other people”. Although not explicitly quoted in the movie, it certainly provides the tone.

Never overdoing her role, Britt Lower offers a solid performance as Phoenix, firm yet often touching, with just a hint of sadness in the corner of her smile. Domain, though, is a team effort, and the overall level of performance by all seven survivors is quite convincing. The screenplay is tight enough so that elements initially looking like inconsistencies get patched up by the end, and the story proceeds at the perfect pace without long expositions or useless flashy sequences. By keeping the storytelling simple, Domain manages to tackle important ideas without apparently trying.

Domain is the third feature-length movie by director Nathaniel Atcheson, after the comedies Herpes Boy (2009) and Dead Herring (2012). Atcheson expressed that he wanted to go back to the genre movies that brought him into films in the first place, quoting influences including cyberpunk classics Blade Runner, Robocop, and Alien. Indeed, Domain taps into some of the claustrophobic vibes of Alien and may raise some philosophical questions similar to those of Blade Runner, but I’ll leave that to the viewer.

Budget sci-fi is always a challenge, one that Atcheson and his production team overcome with flying colors. Domain is an intelligent psychological thriller addressing the issues of our current network-obsessed reality with subtlety and has every right to find its place in the cult sci-fi thrillers niche with the likes of Cube and Moon.

There is the truth and there are lies. Between the two is a story.

Domain – 8/10

Domain will come out in a limited run in theaters in Los Angeles on September 28th and on disc and streaming on October 2nd, 2018.