Undergods review – bleak and unique dystopian anthology

Nobody is quite alright in this effective and chilling dystopian anthology film from Spanish writer-director Chino Moya, who has carved out three loosely linked stories of retrofuturistic design, set in a broken world that could be just a nudge from our own after a few more terrible decisions.

The place of Undergods' nightmarish vision is unmistakably European, with more than a hint of the Soviet Bloc. The muted aesthetic is filtered through a depressing blue lens – a truly drab setting, where crumbling Brutalist buildings reign supreme and pumping techno music blares on the soundtrack.

Gaunt faced, the actors here – Kate Dickie, Johann Myers, Tanya Reynolds, Adrian Rawlins, Burn Gorman – have the air of survivors living in the aftermath of a nuclear incident. Zombie-like and haggard, they look worn down by the daily grind of life, barely-walking testaments to a dystopia crippled by consumerism, like background characters from Tarkovsky's Stalker brought front and centre.

All three tales hinge on unsettling strangers invading the lives of the anxious and insecure, triggering dark spirals of self-destruction; a seemingly friendly neighbour who integrates himself into a couple's home; a businessman who double-crosses a mysterious stranger; a husband and wife whose world is shattered by the return of one assumed dead.

Is this really a vision of what's to come? Surely not? Then, at a party, we hear the unmistakable sound of the Sugababes' “Round Round,” followed by another horrific karaoke rendition of Sinatra’s “My Way.” Suddenly, there's no pretending we're anywhere else. But whose way, exactly? These tales could well serve as a warning about Brexit, or the end result of a society obsessed with capitalism. A future, perhaps, rendered at the mercy of white, middle-aged men.

As these tales run in and out of one another, the idea that we might be seeing stories-within-stories complicates matters further, forcing us to question what’s made up and what’s meant to be. Maybe this trip, on the slight side, doesn't cut quite deep enough that you'd care to take it twice. And yet… for all the absurdity and surrealism on display, there's an unmistakable sting of truth that grants Undergods its eerie power.

Undergods is now available on digital platforms.