Let’s Be Evil (2016)

Number Rolled: 51

Movie Name/Year: Let’s Be Evil (2016)

Tagline: Evil see. Evil do.

Genre: Thriller, Sci-Fi, Horror

Length: 82 minutes

Rating: NR

Production Companies: Let’s Be Evil, Posterity Pictures

Producer: Martin Barnes, David Bostock, Vincent Bull, Mark Clenshaw, John Cruse, Pratima Desai, Dave Ellor, Chris Furness, John Harrison, Mike Harrison, Michael Holmes, Trevor Howard, Simon James, Robin Kayser, Jonathan Kendall, Elizabeth Morris, Mike Norris, Martin Owen, Nicki Perkins, Bill Roberts, David Ronaldson, Amandeep Sandhu, Brandon Smith, Mario Tafur, Alan Thompson, Carl Welham, Weena Wijitkhuankhan, Matt Williams, Jonathan Willis, Dave Yeates, Laura Yeates

Director: Martin Owen

Writer: Elizabeth Morris, Martin Owen, Jonathan Willis

Actors: Kara Tointon, Isabelle Allen, Jamie Bernadette, Elliot James Langridge, Elizabeth Morris, Martin Owen, Brooke Johnston, Helene Wilson, Paul Casar, Jonathan Willis, Billie Wilson, James McNeill, Jules Brown, Natasha Moore, Shirley Clemmet

Stunt Coordinator: Jude Poyer

Languages

Speech Available: English

Subtitles Available: English, Spanish

Blurb from Netflix: While supervising a program for gifted children who wear augmented reality glasses, three chaperones find themselves hunted by their charges.

Selina’s Point of View:

Wow.

In the beginning, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t really enjoy this film. The starting music was a little weird, I didn’t really believe the initial acting… but as the film went on I got incredibly invested. It eventually got to the point where I couldn’t look away from the screen.

There were still parts near the end that weren’t quite so great, but they were pretty few and far between.

Before I turned it on, I wasn’t aware that a lot of Let’s Be Evil was going to be in first-person. As a result, some of it gets a little shaky, but nowhere near as bad as found footage films tend to get. Not that I would consider this film to exist in the ‘found footage’ category anyway.

Let’s Be Evil really taps into the use of new technology to bring about a whole new sub-genre of film. Something we can see in other projects such as Pandemic (2016) and Hardcore Henry (2015). I can’t say I’m hating this first-person perspective take on movies, either. That’s weird because I’m not a first-person gamer. In fact, I pretty much hate the majority of FPS because the whole first-person perspective makes me dizzy, as if I can’t really get my feet on stable ground.

This film, and others like it, find ways to negate that effect so that I am able to watch all the way through without feeling ill.

The ending was… interesting. I can’t really say I understood it, but it feels like something that’s open for significant discussion. I have theories, but they’re all kind of out of left field. I doubt any of them are even remotely true.

I would definitely recommend this film. Even with the flaws, it’s worth a watch.

Cat’s Point of View:

Holy shit. What did I just watch?

I love the concept of this movie. Augmented reality takes virtual reality to the next level, in my book. There are so many applications for the technology. One of them, of course, is gaming. We do have a few games out there currently that explore the augmented reality concept. Pokémon Go is one of them, and there’s a horror one called Night Terrors.

I digress.

This movie explores augmented reality in a way I don’t think I’ve seen done before. The framework of this film is fantastic. I only wish my eyesight was better so I could read more of the itty bitty fast moving text. It almost feels like you’re in a first-person perspective video game for a good bit of the movie.

I also have to give them credit that the camera work was mostly smooth, even though following the characters made for a good deal of movement. It wasn’t spastic shaky cam, for which I was immensely grateful. OK, so there’s a little of that but it’s few and far between.

Some of the movie was a little odd, but it made sense all the same. I don’t have any complaints on the acting, either. I have zero idea why Netflix rated this so low for me. I am still questioning what really happened, hours after I watched. I will probably need to watch this again several times to piece more together.

This movie is best enjoyed in a dark environment and with little white noise or background noise going on. I got the most out of it by using headphones with my laptop. Some of the environmental sounds are so soft that it’s hard to hear. Blending in with the environment of the film also helps with an immersive experience and it will crank the intensity level up.

I would definitely recommend Let’s Be Evil and can confirm that it was well deserving of its spot in my top 20 list of movies to look out for in August 2016.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 22%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 20%

Netflix’s Prediction for Selina – 2.5/5

Selina’s Trust-the-Dice Score – 4/5

Netflix’s Prediction for Cat – 2/5

Cat’s Trust-the-Dice Score – 4/5

Trust-the-Dice’s Parental Advisory Rating: PG-13

Movie Trailer: