Oxygen is one of those Predicament movies… usually the kind of flick set in one location where the character has to struggle to survive. And we can ask “what would I do if I were sealed in a coffin underground, trapped on a ski-lift over a long brutal night, or stuck in a shark cage 47 meters down?”. The predicament with Oxygen is that you and I can’t really relate to being stuck in a cryogenic tube after being woken up early and having to debate with a stubborn AI while our oxygen runs out. Or, you know, at least I hope we’ll never be in that situation….

But, yes, that’s the premise of Oxygen. It’s a science fiction take on the sub-genre… a type of movie that relies on the actors to give a convincing performance in one very confined space for ninety minutes and change. And then it’s up to the director (and editor) to make that limited space streeetch out…

And this film is directed by Alexandre Aja which came as a surprise to me. He’s been moving up in the Hollywood game with such genre pieces as Crawl (trapped in a basement during a hurricane… watch out for gators!), Horns, and Piranha 3D. Certainly none of these are masterclasses in anything, but I didn’t see him making a tiny French language film released on Netflix. Which isn’t a crime and he brings some tension (you might even say High Tension) to the film. Which it certainly needs.

Not everything works in the film… it does sag a little in the first hour. It tries hard and the actress (Melanie Laurent) is giving it her all. If she didn’t work so hard (and so well), the movie wouldn’t have worked. But she manages to do a good job with the assistance of the monotone (and certainly frustrating) AI monitoring her. That’s one of those robot voice-only performances that can really elevate the creep factor of a sci-fi flick.

There are a few twists and turns in the movie, some that work, some that don’t. The biggest problem with predicting anything in the film is that we just don’t know what kind of science fiction future this cryobed exists in so we don’t have any touchpoints to better understand her predicament. Which is why the first major surprise isn’t all that surprising… but where it goes from there is a bit more surprising. At least to me. And that elevated a movie which desperately needed it.

I’d say this is a good watch, especially if you like taut suspense thrillers, these predicament scenarios, or science fiction in general. I don’t think it treads any particularly impressive new grounds but the flick largely works well within its own constraints. Maybe it gets a little long in the tooth in the first hour but it pulls ahead in the final act. And, hey, I can at least say I was surprised… sometimes.

Score: 76