Netflix’s Spiderhead makes its dystopic sci-fi vision seem playful

There’s something devious about the playfulness of Netflix’s Spiderhead. The sci-fi thriller, led by a dapper Chris Hemsworth, takes place at a remote prison slash research center, where inmates are given a surprising amount of freedom in exchange for being subjected to experimental pharmaceutical treatments that do everything from making them feel terrified to creating an impossible-to-satiate hunger. It’s bleak stuff. And yet much of the film has a light tone to help mask its devious nature; Hemsworth dances to ’80s pop, and inmates spend their free time playing arcade games and creating snacks with prosciutto and nectarines.