‘Empathy, Inc.’ (2018) Review: A New Twist on Sci-Fi

Sci-fi is perhaps the most difficult sub-genre of horror to get right. There are so many particulars that go into creating a tone, setting the subject matter apart, giving it its own look, and making the inconceivable feel believable. Empathy, Inc. did most of that, with a bit of style inside its substance. This story, about a man who loses everything with a bad investment firm and goes on to find a new start-up company to invest in, has an ambition and a uniqueness that is sorely lacking in today’s regurgitated cash-cow market.

Empathy, Inc. was directed by Yedidya Gorsetman (Jammed 2014) and written by Mark Leidner (Same Boat 2019). The direction here is very clear and concise, even later when the character motivations change. When dealing with virtual reality material, it’s important to keep on task and not confuse your audience, and Gorsetman/Leidner kept the plot obvious without allowing it to get lazy. This film follows Joel, played admirably by Zack Robidas (Tooth And Nail 2007), as he gets his in-laws to invest in a new start-up called Empathy, Inc. This company sets out to make rich clients experience the doldrums of being a have-not, in hopes that it’ll make them feel better about their own lives. But inside this virtual reality experience, nothing is quite as it seems.

Shot in an attractively bold black-and-white and with a creative plot, this felt like an old episode of The Twilight Zone (read our flashback review of its pilot episode here). The cinematography took some very interesting angles during conversations, switching between POV and up-angles, which you don’t often see outside of noir. They also chose to darken the outer edges of the screen for the VR point of view, which put you in a first person viewfinder and let you know things were shifting. Empathy, Inc. was far from perfect. The lack of a score took a solid amount of the tension away. The pacing in the middle was a tad slow. The stakes didn’t always feel as big as they actually were.

But for the fresh and wide creation that it was, this movie delivered something that isn’t easy to forget about, in a good way. The ending is twisty, but all the twists make sense and give the characters a bit of progression. The underlying conspiratorial horror lends itself to future outputs from this company, and the building blocks are there for more of this sci-fi innovation. Read another PopHorror reviewer’s thoughts on this film here.