Deep in the countryside, behind a barn door, a secretive organization has been running drug experiments on unwitting human subjects under a program called Solution 86. Director J Lee Vertz’s S86 is a B-movie horror thriller about what happens when the experiment finally works…and then escapes.
Graves (Giovanny Vazquez) and Carter (Daniel Anderson) are hired muscle for a super-secret science lab. Their latest job: track down a scientist named Dr. Jensen (Robert Snow) before he can expose his employer’s secrets. They have to bring him in without making a mess. Taking out Dr. Jensen would have been easy, but instead, they are forced to bring him to the farm. It’s a place where innocent people go and then disappear, including people they knew…like co-workers with loose tongues.
The farm turns out to be worse than they could ever imagine. Hidden behind its unassuming appearance, there’s a full-scale laboratory run by Dr. Love (Johnny Rocko), who is the money, and his lead scientist, Dr. Black (Georgina Black). Inside is what nightmares are made of: piles of failed human test subjects—all part of an ongoing experiment called Solution 86. It’s a drug designed to rewire the human mind. As luck would have it, their last subject survived the treatment. He is now known as Subject 13 (Sawl Gud), no longer quite human, built for one purpose—to be a monster and do monster things.
Dr. Jensen’s defection from the research team has made him a target, and now he will be prey for Subject 13’s first hunt. What follows is a relentless, bloody chase as Dr. Jensen tries to escape and expose Dr. Love and the farm for what they are doing. Sadly, Subject 13 is a creature with no memory of mercy and no intention of stopping until he’s had a chance to feast on his soon-to-be target.
Subject 13 (Sawl Gud) is held down under red and blue neon light in S86.
“Inside is what nightmares are made of: piles of failed human test subjects—all part of an ongoing experiment called Solution 86.”
S86 is a fun B-movie horror film that opens from an unexpected angle — the henchmen. Graves and Carter are just doing their jobs, but their jobs are dangerous, and what they have to do is pretty ugly. Kidnapping someone and driving them to their death isn’t something either of them enjoys. Their survival odds are razor-thin, and they know it. It’s a simple and effective story structure, and it’s a reminder that good storytelling elevates any genre and any budget.
From there, director J Lee Vertz leans all the way into the evil scientist trope and clearly has a blast doing it. His villains are sadistic and unapologetic, and putting them on a farm with a full science lab hidden in the barn is exactly the right move. This is B-movie horror at its most entertaining.
Then there’s Subject 13. Sawl Gud has the most physical role in the entire film, and you can see on his face that he loves every second of it. The gory costume work and practical effects keep escalating right up to the end — and somehow, that ending lands with a little unexpected heart. Fans of B-horror won’t want to miss it.
Vertz knows exactly what kind of movie he’s making with S86, and that self-awareness is what makes it work. It’s low-budget horror done right — gory, fun, and just a little more heartfelt than you’d expect.
For screening information, visit the S86 official website.
"…the experiment finally works...and then escapes."
