The road to movie hell is paved with good intentions and few intentions are better than those that inform this high-concept sci-fi from Ben Wheatley, the director of Sightseers and Meg 2: The Trench. Shot mostly in a suburban house in Brighton over two weeks in 2024 on an undisclosed yet proverbial shoestring (cardboard sets and toy props), the film is designed, its star Sam Riley says, “to show people that all you need is an idea.” Well, yes, and …

• Read more film reviews, guides about what to watch and interviews

Riley, his off-screen wife, Alexandra Maria Lara (Control), and Noah Taylor star as three scientists working on an interdimensional energy experiment that, in the opening frames, goes awry. Their nondescript semi-detached house is transformed into a “quantum liferaft” that travels through the multiverse and sends Riley’s scientist-cum-quantum journalist (don’t ask!) Corey Harlan in hot pursuit of a former crypto-billionaire called Anton Chambers (Mark Monero) to discover the sub-atomic path back to non-quantum reality before the heavy metal poison in Harlan’s blood becomes fatal.

Nice on paper, perhaps, but with no budget and few locations more elaborate than a kitchen island we are inundated with convoluted exposition as part of the film’s plan, Wheatley says, “to tell a simple story in a complicated way”. Meanwhile, how do our protagonists travel across dimensions? They walk into different rooms in the house. How do they jump between identities? They change their clothes.

There is precedent here: Shane Carruth’s quantum head-scratcher Primer (2004) and Steven Soderbergh’s ghostly chiller Presence (2024) demonstrated that satisfying dramatic tension could be wrung from a single set, a crazy idea and no budget. But this is just sloppy, repetitive and dull.

• The 20 best sci-fi movies of all time — ranked by the experts

Wheatley claims that while making Bulk he was inspired by the authors Kurt Vonnegut and Philip K Dick, and by the films of Jan Svankmajer. Great. I’m inspired by James Joyce but that doesn’t mean my reviews are modernist masterpieces. Not all of them anyway.
★★☆☆☆
15, 90min
Touring in cinemas now, rookfilms.co.uk

Two-for-one cinema tickets at Everyman

Times+ members can enjoy two-for-one cinema tickets at Everyman each Wednesday. Visit thetimes.com/timesplus to find out more

Which films have you enjoyed at the cinema recently? Let us know in the comments