Let's Be Evil (2016)

Wonderful character development!

Too much of everything

best movie i've ever seen.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The most obvious theme here is TECHNOLOGY. Jenny willingly sends in her physiological evaluation and all requested vitals to an organization which she knows nothing about. We later find out that a younger participant in the program uses this information about Jenny's fears and physiological traits such as her empathy and sympathy against her. She uses this to scare the crap out of Jenny but also gain her trust as Jenny "adopted" Cassandra as a younger sister. Jenny tries to "humanize" Cassandra as she lacks many human traits due to being trapped in an augmented reality education system where she is also deprived of normal human conversations. This brings us to our second theme, EDUCATION. In the opening scene, we see a news interview discussing the state that our education system is in. The anchor listens to a man talk about how our education system in the U.S. is awful compared to those in China and other military power houses. This film really depicted the society we would live in if we adopted those all-informative, social interaction-lacking schools. This interview could also act as a foreshadow for the rest of the film. The school system may have changed in response of a request to increase the complexity of our education system. "If it's not broke, don't fix it." Arial even says the children aren't encouraged to communicate with each other unless it is necessary. That sounds like a joke to me. This is why these kids are so desensitized. The name of the program is actually called the POSTERITY PROJECT. It should be pretty obvious that education is a huge part of this film. Another theme I have discovered is THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN REALITY AND AUGMENTED REALITY. Jenny is trapped in the virtual world so long, that she fights for her life in it. She doesn't realize that death in an augmented reality world wouldn't result in death in the real world. Maybe if she died in the augmented reality world she'd come back to reality. I think this film relates to the Black Mirror episode Playtest (also on Netflix). The episode Playtest also had a program that used your weaknesses to attack you in your most vulnerable spots, just as Cassandra did to Jenny. Jenny seems to be confused of what is reality and what is augmented reality. The next theme is CURIOSITY. This one is another obvious one. Jenny walks into the Posterity Project and puts on glasses that she hasn't been instructed to put on or even informed about. This starts Jenny's nightmare. Let's hit another theme, HELPLESSNESS. This shower scene which everyone is confused about doesn't relate to the plot at all. It relates to Jenny's soft spot. Helplessness, she knows the feeling so very well. She watched her dad die right in front of her knowing she couldn't do anything to stop it. We see another instance where helplessness is exemplified towards the end of the movie when the chaperones stumble upon what seemed to be a previous chaperone trapped in a locked room. There seems to be a way to get him out as there is a puzzle attached to the door, but Darby and the others find out the hard way that there was no possible way to help the man. This could've also made the augmented reality more "real" for Jenny as this feeling of helplessness has proven itself in the real world as well. Boom, another theme, FALSE SENSE OF ACCOMPLISHMENT. When the 3 chaperones hear the voice over the intercom as soon as they break the ice, the voice uses positive, reinforcing words and phrases such as "Congratulations", and telling the chaperones that they are part of "saving our country's future". Tiggs even creates a sense of false accomplishment by saying being selected for the program makes her feel safe and important. But who knows, the other 2 chaperones could just be a part of the simulation too. The last theme I have found in the film so far is TRUST. Cassandra knows that the best way to gain someone's trust is to relate to them but also completely differ from them if that makes any sense. Familiar is comfortable, but opposites attract.. As soon as the 3 chaperones get put into the simulation, Jenny has to trust the other chaperones because they're the only ones she can relate too. Everything and everyone else is extremely unfamiliar and could be seen as a threat. This was probably in the film to create a sense of comfort for Jenny as it would be one of the most uncomfortable situations she'd ever experience. Cassandra used the method of relating and differing from Jenny that I talked about earlier as Jenny and Cassandra were always the odd ones out. They were always left out from the group. She also differed from Jenny in the way that Cassandra was a genius and Jenny couldn't even imagine what it would be like to live as a child prodigy. In summary, this film has many themes that take time to discover but hold great meaning. Confusing isn't always bad, it just means that you haven't acquired the knowledge to understand or appreciate something yet. Everything you'll every read or watch has great meaning and a purpose behind it. So if you found this movie confusing, watch it again, and again, and again until you've finally found a meaning that relates to you, and share it with people because that is how the education system should work. Our minds should flourish from the generosity and knowledge of others.

The concept and setup of this film was amazing to me, luring me in without complete explanations, forcing me the viewer to pick up information as we go along. At no point is it ever clear how these people were selected, why, and what they are even supposed to be doing in terms of overseeing the children, since everything is seemingly automated anyway. The idea that the facility is essentially completely dark at all times, only noticeable when they take off their augmented reality glasses, is genius --- great way to conserve power --- while using the food maker thing to keep them supplied with nutrients and such. The main character Jenny has an inexplicable backstory involving someone killing her father in front of her, and a dying mother whose medical bills prompt her taking on this job. Throughout the job, she gets some minor taunting from an unknown source, in sequences that tend to make no sense and can be difficult to follow when everything is in a first person view shifting back and forth among the three protagonists' augmented reality glasses. At some point, stuff starts going wrong, as expected in a film. The facility's augmented reality portion seemingly loses power at times, or else is being hacked, and the perpetual virtual intelligence program A.R.I.A.L. that is the only "glue" to the whole place is taken over by... the children. The children are taking over the facility for some reason. Then some of the other people, Tiggs and Darby, start getting attacked, apparently by the children. Jenny also finds one of the children, Cassandra, who has her augmented reality glasses taken away and so is essentially blind as the facility is completely unlit. At this point, it becomes boring. There's long, poorly shot "chase" sequences in the dimly lit augmented reality facility, so you're basically looking at dull shades of colors for minutes at a time with lots of camera shaking and people shouting. It got to a point of being so boring that I completely drifted off and had to rewind many, many times and re-watch many portions leading up to that "twist" ending. The twist at the end was apparently Cassandra was evil all along as well, having contact lenses that kept her in to the augmented reality portion. She expo-dumps some stuff, but not enough, and leaves us basically confused. I had been so bored by the previous section of the movie that I felt even more confused because I wasn't paying attention to much of the middle section of the film. Apparently the other children in the facility don't exist and it's only Cassandra there? Or maybe the other children do exist?Also apparently they were playing some manner of "game" with Jenny, which Cassandra dramatically says at the very end that she's lost the game. I apparently wasn't paying enough attention because I didn't get this at all. And the incredibly boring middle section of the film makes me not want to re-watch it to find out.

I like to consider myself a pretty intelligent person. Maybe not the smartest guy to ever live but I hold my own. And I've seen some films that while bad I USUALLY can find some redeeming qualities to.Lets Be Evil?None.No scares.Boring as the day is long.The lighting and first person feel is terrible and in the end the 'twist' is not only predicable but we never really even attempt to give or get an explanation for whats actually going on.Its a techno version of The Blair Witch (which I really didn't like to begin with) that doesn't even must up the brilliant viral campaign Blair had.

This is a typical -- watch it twice -- movie.A nice B movie with some head scratching at the end.----- SPOILER BEYOND THIS POINT ------There are small hints all the way through the movie. The Augmented Reality is the key to Questions that pop up in the first run.Keep an close eye on messages showed on the interface (glasses) they are not as random as they appear.At the end you figure out, that the "adults" are the the rats inside the lab controlled by the children. Because all they wanna do is play with their pets :D