While not necessarily a horror movie, given the similarity between the financial thriller that is Margin Call and the real life Wall Street melt down in 2008 that remains smoldering today, a ghost story would likely be less scary.
Centered on a fictional investment firm in the early stages of the real financial collapse, Margin Call shows the unraveling of the company discovered by a recently-fired risk analyst and his protégé. Told over the course of one day, the movie manages to take a potentially dry subject and emerge with a dramatic plot even John Grisham would envy.
The writing is brilliant, matched only by the stellar casting that includes Kevin Spacey in his best role in years, Stanley Tucci, Demi Moore and Jeremy Irons as villainous as always. While Wall Street traders as bad guys is hardly a new concept, director and writer J.C. Chandor manages to re-tell an all too common story in a new way.
Margin Call is required viewing right up there with the documentary Inside Job when it comes to trying to get to the bottom of the most recent global financial crises. Nightmares be damned.
Margin Call/107 Mins./Lionsgate/2011