This scrappy genre-busting film starring Melissa George and Liam Hemsworth is such a thrilling watch because it is unclassifiable: small-scale and epic, brainy and silly

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Like many, my addiction to the hit TV show Severance – which follows a shadowy biotech company that can “sever” people’s memories at work from their memories of the outside world – has increased my appetite for more mind-bending, high-concept stories. Drawing from a rich well of inspiration, which encompasses The Twilight Zone and Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, Severance has reawakened a specific obsession of mine: “puzzle box” sci-fi plots, where Matryoshka doll mysteries unfold in an equally confusing and horrifying fashion, escalating into an exhilarating crescendo that is usually analysed in forums and YouTube videos tagged with the promise “ENDING EXPLAINED”.

The most wonderful thing about this kind of ornate storytelling is that no big budget is required, simply big ideas. Severance’s playfulness with non-chronology, labyrinthine hallways and duplicate selves are also found in scrappy, low-budget gems, such as Christopher Smith’s underrated 2009 film Triangle.