Aaron Hann and Mario Miscione’s debut film Circle premieres today on Netflix. Circle is a lean, mean machine of science fiction social commentary. Like most filmmakers, they cut their teeth on a short film project: The Vault.

The Vault is actually a web series, a relatively new pipeline for filmmakers to experiment with. Made over the course of three years, The Vault fully displays a pair of filmmakers learning the language through simplistic ideas. Over the course of The Vault‘s 13 episodes, the filmmakers move from simple setups and ideas to increasingly complex plotting and imagery.

Taking it’s cue from the one-room puzzle movie Cube, The Vault is a game show of 150 college students, each inhabiting a different all-white room with a puzzle in it. Each student is separate from each other, but have to work together to collectively solve a puzzle for a week-long television broadcast. They’re all tied together by a controller, who can call everybody through his switchboard. Things get complicated.

In its way, The Vault is the conceptual inverse of Circle. Circle has 50 people in one room fighting each other for their individual survival. The Vault has 150 people in separate rooms trying to collectively solve a problem. Circle is a broad cross-section of society, and The Vault focuses on college students. Circle is a constantly ticking and resetting clock, but The Vault is a single ticking clock with no eliminations. Circle is all about sociology, while The Vault is more about psychology and puzzle solving. Though these both have killer pacing, The Vault and Circle almost present a yin and yang story about television and reality show contestants.

With a simple high concept, The Vault is visually compelling with hilarious results. Hann and Miscione master the cliff hanger, pulling the audience along from episode to episode, through all of the breaks. They have a wicked sense of humor and irony shining through the bizarre concept.

The Vault is 16 episodes ranging from 15-60 minutes. Check it out.