Netflix is all about them thrillers recently. This is a huge boon to fans of anything laced with suspense.
We've had in recent days The Platform and The Occupant, but now we're moving from Spain to Canada with The Decline (or in French: Jusqu'au Déclin) out now on Netflix.
The thriller follows a group of survivalists who attend a training camp deep in the Quebec winter wilderness. After a fatal accident, participants devolve into a panic which sets the stage for a chilling showdown.
Most of the attendees at the camp, run by a man named Alain (Réal Bossé), believe that a natural disaster is imminent, and the government is deliberately underprepared. Some think an economic collapse is on the horizon, others societal (no-one mentions a global pandemic, which is actually quite a relief).
We're introduced to the world of these French-Canadian survivalists through Antoine (Guillaume Laurin) who leaves his wife and daughter behind to join the camp (though in our introduction to him, at his home, they seem totally on board with his antics). Each person brings to the team a different skill set, for which Alain is vocally grateful.
He leads them through a series of workshops, including skinning rabbits (graphically, we might add) and building bombs. As you can imagine, the merde soon hits the fan.
One of the campers' bombs goes off while he's holding it, killing him, and this is when things begin to unravel, and the true story of The Decline begins. This isn't a film about surviving an apocalypse, it's about what happens when you bring the apocalypse on yourselves.
The brilliance of the movie is the bait and switch, both in storytelling and in character focus. By refusing to stick to one point of view, The Decline immerses you in the bleak desolation of the world.
In any other film, this might feel busy and complicated, but because the story is so narrow we never lose track of what's going on. At only one hour and 23 minutes, the film moves at a quick pace without being tiring or relentless.
Unlike other thrillers, there isn't a complicated storyline, a person with nuanced motivations, or a supernatural element that confuses things. Instead, we get a clear villain: people. All of them.
It isn't the environment or the economy that causes people to turn against each other, it's just human nature. Which is a sobering thought when we're watching supermarket shelves laid barren...
Though it's almost impossible not to draw comparisons to our current climate, The Decline isn't really about any single instigating disaster. It's just death, a simple, impossible to predict accident, that causes everyone to unravel.
Warning: we're about to go into spoilers, but we really recommend you watch it yourself – you can skip down past the related link box below for our spoiler-free conclusion.
About two thirds of the way through, The Decline swaps its lead of Antoine for Rachel, an ex-soldier and the sole survivor of Alain's camp. Her final fight with Alain is brutal, simply framed and impossible not to watch.
You can feel the weight of her victory over him, which comes at a huge cost – everyone else's lives. The Decline ends abruptly, though, and you can't help but wonder what will happen when she returns to the real world, a deeply wounded Alain in tow.
There is an element of catharsis in watching the people struggle to survive, both against nature and their opponents. It offers an element of escapism, a chance to imagine what we would do in that situation (while being very thankful we're not in it).
But it also reminds us how easily things can all go wrong, and how precious and important it is to be kind. Else you might end up garrotted on a tripwire in the middle of the snow-covered woods.
The Decline is now available to watch on Netflix.
Digital Spy now has a newsletter – sign up to get it sent straight to your inbox.
Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Instagram and Twitter accounts.
Gabriella Geisinger
Gabriella Geisinger is a freelance journalist and film critic, and was previously Deputy Movies Editor at Digital Spy. She loves Star Wars, coming-of-age stories, thrillers, and true crime. A born and raised New Yorker, she also loves coffee and the colour black, obviously.
