Director – Luis Piedrahita, Rodrigo Sopeña
Cast – Alejo Sauras, Elena Ballesteros, Lluís Homar, Santi Millán, Federico Luppi
Release Year – 2008
Reviewed by John of the Dead
I first read about this flick only a few weeks ago and was immediately hooked on its Cube-esque plot. Much to my surprise, it is currently streaming on Shudder and I immediately dove right in. I love horror films and I love puzzles, so blending the two together makes for one of my favorite horror sub-genres. That is the case with Fermat’s Room. This 2007 Spanish flick (2008 for the USA) is a relatively simple “thinker” that won’t force you to think 
too much and not enjoy your munchies. Instead, it employs intelligent protagonists to do the thinking for us. With a pressure-cooker plot that comes with several twists and turns, this is sure to appease those wanting a film of this sub-genre.
Four mathematicians receive invitations from a mysterious host, Fermat, to attend a gathering where they will solve a great enigma. Curious and looking to feed their egos, they all accept and find themselves faced with the puzzle of a lifetime, literally. The room they are in is shrinking, and they must solve a series of enigmas to keep the walls from crushing them to death. Logic isn’t their only foe though, as the secrets that tie them together become the revelations that tear them apart.
Stories like this really intrigue me. I enjoy seeing strangers having to face each other and work together towards survival, whether that be by saving one another or killing each other. There have been quite a few films like this in recent years, such as Would You Rather, House of 9, Exam, and Circle, with the notable classics being Saw and Cube. Fermat’s Room is most like Cube in that it is more of a thriller flick than a horror film. It has elements of horror and people die, which is why I would include it in this genre as well.
Luis Piedrahita and Rodrigo Sopena both write and direct this film, with the story coming in at a brisk 88 minutes including the credits. I was glad to see such a short run time because a film with so few locations will suffer pacing issues if you take too long to dish out the goods. The flick begins with our four protagonists receiving letters in the mail from Ferment, saying if they can solve the enclosed enigma they will be invited to attend a gathering of math’s most brilliant minds. The participants come young and old, with some established and respected while others are up-and-coming for creating buzz within the community. With other films like this you see strangers accept a mysterious invitation because it comes with a monetary prize. This isn’t the case here. These people are drawn in by their curiosity and are flattered that someone would request their services to solve an unsolvable problem. Once they arrive at the designated meeting point they must go through a few security loops before they arrive at the event’s location. They are assigned pseudonyms, told not to tell their personal information to one another, and are also not allowed to bring cell phones. It is obvious that whoever Mr. Fermat is, he wants this done in secrecy, even from each other. When they arrive at their destination they are directed to a room adorned with a chalkboard, books on mathematics, and of course…dinner. Fermat arrives at the 23 minute mark, which immediately eases the viewer after spending the last 10 minutes assuring themselves that Fermat was up to no good. Don’t be fooled though. This story finds ways to leave the viewer questioning Fermat’s intentions, and it’s guaranteed to keep you in the dark until its final sequence.
The horror begins when the mathematicians are faced with their first enigma. It arrives on a PDA and they must use the chalkboard to find their answer and then send it back. They are bewildered at first, wondering why they came out of their ways to play a silly game, but nonetheless they participate. They don’t realize it at first, but once they take longer than a minute to answer the question the room begins to shrink. After each enigma a new one is sent, with each one usually harder than the last. This is when they begin to realize their room is shrinking, with each of the 4 walls getting closer and closer to the center. As each enigma takes longer to solve, the room is getting smaller at an alarmingly fast rate. Whoever put them up to this has obviously put in a lot of time and planning to make this happen, which results in our characters having to not only solve the puzzles but also try to figure out whey they were chosen to be there. They must be connected to Fermat somehow, and it is then that some skeletons are released from their closets. This idea of a shrinking room is awesome to me and reminds me of the tension I felt when Indiana Jones had to survive a similar fate. Throw in the insidious character-driven tension and you have an incredible situation that seems impossible to survive.
Piedrahita and Sopena do a good job directing this film. With tension as its main selling point it takes a good director to make the viewer feel the same time-sensitive claustrophobia the guests are going through. I enjoyed the locations used and found the shrinking room to be perfect. It was simple, adorned in such a fashion that books, shelves, and light fixtures would have to be rearranged to give them better chances at survival. It was awesome watching the items in the room be crushed as the walls came closer together. With the bulk of the film taking place in one location there needed to be good direction of all the elements involved. The atmosphere sucks you in and the cinematography aided in exemplifying the shrinking room. However, it is up to the actors to really sell the tension to the viewer, and they do. The breakdown between them sucks you into the film and leaves you thinking of what you would do in their situation. Would you let revelations keep you from solving the problems and ultimately crushing you (and everyone you dislike) to death? Films that can do such a thing to a viewer always leave a lasting impact, and I can say that Fermat’s Room is a film that does that for me.
Overall, Fermat’s Room is a great horror/thriller sure to please fans of flicks like Cube. While it is a little light on the horror it provides an engaging setup that I could not draw my attention from.
Rating: 7/10
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