My Thoughts on the Film, Mayhem (2017), 4/3/2026…

I love me a good violent action movie, but only in small doses, only if it’s done well, and only in special circumstances. Mayhem (2017) fits this bill perfectly. The action is evenly distributed; the violence is brutal, but not over-the-top or cartoonish, while the pacing is fast but not exhausting. Everything works in this film.

Directed by Joe Lynch (Creepshow) and written by Matias Caruso (The Dollmaker), Mayhem uses the common, if not overused, trope of a mysterious virus outbreak and has fun with it. ID-7, or the “Red Eye” virus, leads to the complete loss of inhibitions in infected individuals, prompting them to pursue their most violent, impulsive, and darkest desires. It’s a trainwreck, but a contained one. I mean, who doesn’t want to smack the spit out of someone who has wronged them? In work or anywhere else?

Authorities enter the scene to contain the building where the outbreak occurs, giving the infected eight hours to allow the airborne cure to run its course. Towers and Smythe Consulting (TSC), a skyscraper corporation in a nameless urban setting, is the setting where the proverbial fertilizer hits the air circulator. There’s nothing like taking potshots at Corporate America.

The movie stars Steven Yuen (Nope) and Samara Weaving (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), who is living proof that Anya Taylor-Joy and Emma Stone are, in fact, sisters. Yeun plays Derek Cho, a cog in the corporate wheel who grows a conscience, while Weaving portrays Melanie Cross, a victim of corporate greed who knows how to grind an axe. Forming an uneasy alliance, they climb to the penthouse, kicking butt and taking names along the way, to serve justice to the corporate overlords.

As mentioned, Mayhem is a great deal of fun, featuring just the right amount of elements. I highly recommend it.