Prime Video has just added Vivarium, the extremely creepy 2019 Irish sci-fi thriller movie.
The film centres around a young woman (Imogen Poots, 28 Weeks Later) and her fiancé (Oscar-nominee Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network) who are in search of the perfect starter home.
“After following a mysterious real estate agent (Jonathan Aris, Black Mirror) to a new housing development, the couple finds themselves trapped in a maze of identical houses and forced to raise an otherworldly child,” the plot synopsis reads.
Also featuring amongst its cast rising star Éanna Hardwicke (Saipan), Vivarium was co-written and directed by filmmaker Lorcan Finnegan (Nocebo, the upcoming Nicolas Cage thriller The Surfer).
And it singled out Finnegan and his co-writer Garret Shanley as real talents – with the sci-fi thriller impressively satirising societal expectations for people to settle down and live in the suburbs by twisting that scenario into the stuff of nightmares.
This nightmarish quality is no doubt helped by Vivarium’s creepily uncanny central setting – a recreation of a suburban neighboured filled with details that are just slightly off.
You can read some other glowing reviews for the movie below:
The Hollywood Reporter: “It is a superior genre piece at heart but elevated by its high-calibre leads Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg, plus a script rich in political and cultural resonance.”
London Evening Standard: “Vivarium is an ingenious, relentless sci-fi horror from Irish director Lorcan Finnegan and writer Garret Shanley.”
New York Times: “There’s a consistent inventiveness – and grim humour – to this treatment of a seemingly well-worn theme.”
Observer (UK): “There are times this feels like a single idea stretched to feature length. But there’s enough visual and thematic invention to keep viewers gripped and unsettled.”
Screen International: “A low-key science-fiction thriller whose obvious existential themes are well-served by a clever, confident execution that finds new ways to explore the hells of parenthood, commitment and ageing.
Vivarium is now available to stream on Prime Video in the UK and Ireland.
Related: One of 2025’s biggest sci-fi action movies has just been added to streaming