Docudrama ‘Compliance’ shows peril of following orders

• Courtesy of Dogfish Pictures
• WHICH HUNT: Dreama Walker in ‘Compliance’

The skin-crawling drama Compliance primarily takes place in the back office of a humble fast food restaurant, among the spare aprons and boxes of supplies. What transpires there, however, strains credulity nearly as much the outlandish spectacle of a sci-fi summer blockbuster. But no matter how much Compliance challenges its audience’s ability to suspend disbelief, writer/director Craig Zobel based the film closely on the facts of a genuine incident. Compliance might seem impossible, but it actually happened — or at least, something very much like it did.

It begins with a bad day at “Chickwich” for the middle-aged manager Sandra (Ann Dowd). A freezer door was left open all night, so the restaurant’s low on bacon and pickles. A corporate secret shopper may visit that day. Her employees, including pretty, young Becky (Dreama Walker) clearly hold her in low esteem.

The usual rush of orders grows exponentially more complicated when Sandra takes a call from a man (The Innkeepers’ Pat Healy) claiming to be a police officer named Daniels. According to Daniels, he has Sandra’s regional manager on another line and a witness who claims that Becky recently stole money from her person. “We also have one of our surveillance units backing up her claim,” says Daniels, whose sounds like a credible officer of the law. Daniels alludes to being involved in a larger investigation involving Becky and asks Sandra to detain the young woman in a back room, question her and search Becky’s belongings. Then he asks for Becky to be strip-searched.