Brick (2025)

Movie · 2025 · Thriller, Science Fiction · 1h 39m · R · German

Curator score: 0.4/10 (110K ratings)

They want to leave – but their apartment won't let them.

Overview

When a mysterious brick wall encloses their apartment building overnight, Tim and Olivia must unite with their wary neighbors to get out alive.

Ratings

Director

Philip Koch

Production

Leonine Studios, Nocturna Productions, Wiedemann & Berg Television

Cast

Matthias Schweighöfer, Ruby O. Fee, Frederick Lau, Salber Lee Williams, Murathan Muslu, Sira-Anna Faal, Axel Werner, Alexander Beyer, Josef Berousek, Daniele Rizzo, Nader Ben-Abdallah, Daniela Galbo, Markus Ransmayr

Where to watch

Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads

Curator Review

Verdict

A high-concept survival thriller with a strong hook and some effective neighbor-paranoia energy, but the execution sounds uneven, underwritten, and more repetitive than tense. It seems best approached as a serviceable streaming puzzle-box rather than a standout genre entry.

Best for

  • viewers who enjoy claustrophobic escape-room setups
  • fans of contained apartment-building thrillers
  • people looking for a low-stakes, easy-to-watch sci-fi mystery
  • audiences who like paranoia and neighbor-suspicion stories

Skip if

  • you want sharp plotting and airtight logic
  • you need sustained action or escalating set pieces
  • you are tired of familiar streaming-thriller beats
  • you prefer character-driven suspense over premise-first gimmicks

Overview

Brick has the kind of premise that immediately sells itself: an apartment building sealed off by an impossible wall, with strangers forced into uneasy cooperation. That setup naturally invites paranoia, resource scarcity, and the social friction of people who would rather not know their neighbors until survival makes it necessary. The concept is strong enough that it keeps the film watchable even when the writing does not fully cash in on it.

Worth noting

The response suggests a movie that leans more on premise than payoff. Instead of building pressure through escalating conflict, it apparently settles into familiar streaming-thriller rhythms, with pacing issues and twists that feel predictable rather than surprising. The result is less a white-knuckle survival story than a competent but frustratingly familiar one.

Bottom line

Still, there is some appeal in the contained, single-location tension and the social metaphor baked into the wall itself. If you enjoy genre films that turn ordinary domestic spaces into traps, this may scratch the itch. Just do not expect the concept to be explored with the inventiveness or intensity it promises at first glance.

Top Letterboxd reviews

lavy (2.5★) · 2347 likes

okay german cillian murphy

NotBritishMan (3★) · 1140 likes

Not the worst thing to come out of Germany.

𝐉 (1.5★) · 811 likes

Netflix is building a wall of disappointments, brick by brick

8ilie (2★) · 653 likes

the plot has potential but they wasted it. I enjoyed it tho. Could've been better

Horror Syndrome (3★) · 634 likes

Finally a movie that capitalizes on the universal fear of having to talk to your neighbors.

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Topics

claustrophobic thriller, contained setting, survival mystery, paranoia, apartment building, sci-fi premise, ensemble tension, streaming thriller, escape-room energy, social distrust

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