By Will Barber Taylor

A physician investigating a missing patient, disrupts an illegal experiment and unleashes a force that none of them can comprehend.

Death is a constant of life and it is the answer to a question that we all want to answer. The continual turn of the wheel of life is a phenomenon that we have constantly tried to explain and find some root to throughout the history of literature. From the Bible to Hamlet, from The Divine Comedy to Wuthering Heights, from The Odyssey to Frankenstein we have sought to find some explanation to how we came to be and what ensures that we continue to remain here. The compelling force of nature that is life features greatly in our media and nowhere can it be found more strongly than in Laboratory Conditions.

A bleak and engaging story of a Pandora’s Box that, even with its short run time, has the feel of a slow burning thriller, Laboratory Conditions is a master class in effective and simplistic story telling. By limiting itself to a small set, the film gives the feeling of claustrophobia and the sense of a rising tension that ensures that its audience is gripped from the moment it realises what is really going on. With a space age set design to accompany its futuristic story, the film makes the most of its macabre ideas to give its audience a chilling answer to the question – what comes after death?

Laboratory Conditions is a powerful and potent film that combines strong direction with a stellar cast and a fascinating script to present an approach to one of the great questions of life like no other.

You can read my interview with the director of Laboratory Conditions here.