Along with their Originals, Netflix also is dropping all the films they have acquired within the last year. Back in the video rental days when you return a movie and decide to stay and browse the aisles to see if anything catches your eye. Before the covers became generic half-face images, you had to be pulled in by the either the title on the cover, the actors, or the storyline. If I had had seen “Radius” a Canadian sci-fi thriller about a man who awakes from a car accident and realizes that anyone that comes within 50 feet of him drops dead, I would have definitely have rented it.
Liam (Diego Kalttenhoff) wakes from his car accident with no memory but flashes of a light and another person. As he wanders the country side, anything living that comes near him dies, from passing cars to an entire diner. As he discovers that is it not an airborne virus but him that is actually causing the deaths, he isolates himself in his home and is surprised when someone approaches him and does not die. He calls her Jane (Charlotte Sullivan) because she cannot remember who she is either, but it is possible that she may have been involved in the car accident that took their memories and given him this terrible curse. The pair begin to investigate who that are, where they come from, and most importantly what happened to them.
While this has the low-budget direct-t0-video feel to it, the filmmakers Caroline Labrèche and Steeve Léonard bring a calm and steady tone to the film with quick flashes of intensity. There are slow moving overhead shots as the couple drive from place to place, investigating their own past. The two leads put in a solid believable performance as they begin to unravel how they are connected, and the payoff is well executed and unexpected. “Radius” while not a Netflix Original, was indeed a smart acquirement, because this is exactly the kind of movie I love to discover, but not many will. So add it to your list and give it a chance, just don’t get too close.
