What would you do if you woke up from a deep sleep covered in gauze confined to a space the size of a casket? That’s the setting for new sci-fi thriller Oxygen now streaming on Netflix.
French actress Mélanie Laurent stars as a woman who wakes up in a cryogenic chamber with no recollection of how she got there. What makes matters even scarier is that she is on a countdown for her life as she’s running out of oxygen, she must rebuild her memory to find a way out of her nightmare.
The film is directed by Alexandre Aja, who has directed some memorable films that have given us a few scares over the years. Aja rose to international stardom for his 2003 horror film Haute Tension. He has also directed the films The Hills Have Eyes, Mirrors, Piranha 3D, Horns and Crawl.
Oxygen is claustrophobic and exhilarating watching Laurent brilliantly try to navigate her way through the horror that she has found herself in.
Laurent, who was brilliant in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds is on screen for the entire film only interacting with a computerized voice M.I.L.O (the voice on Mathieu Amalric) who may be her only source of help.
Our Bonnie Laufer spoke with director Alexandre Aja and star Mélanie Laurent about collaborating on this project together and what ultimately scared her about taking on this confining role.
- Release Date: 5/12/2021
