Let's Be Evil

Three chaperones are hired to supervise an advanced learning program for gifted children, who wear Augmented Reality Glasses to assist in their education. Contained within a secure, underground facility, events quickly spiral out of control.

The film has received mixed or negative reviews, and I can absolutely see why. Even though the virtual reality parts look okay, the general appearance of the film is cheap. And much of the acting is awful (especially the really bad talking head in the opening). The concept is timely (something we might see on "Black Mirror"), but the film may be limited by its own budget.

Worth a look? Sure. But not nearly as good as the sort of new releases we have come to expect from IFC Midnight. (Then again, you can't have a winner every time, can you?)

I am fairly easily pleased when it comes to movies, but this one became frustrating to watch with in the first 10 minutes.

What is wrong with it? The story. Everything else about the film was OK like the acting etc. but the story was just plain stupid.

When it started it was OK and logical, but it soon descended into a very poor storyline that seemed was financed because it could be made cheaply, regardless of content.

Really you would be better off watching the commercials.

This film has the best trailer I've seen in years, a good combination of lights, colors and funky music. Then as a British Horror enthusiast I was thrilled to see it was a British movie.

The praise stops there.

Three actors a mixture of talent, two good females one awful male actor, a warren of tunnels that are probably the same and the worst American accents ever. Everything was American, it was like it was pretending not to be a British movie, but it was.

The story is very "damned" similar, but that's also where that ends.

Unfortunately the story was just too awful, 45 minutes in I just couldn't go on, it was truly unbearable, boring and utterly tiresome. You could have slept through portions and not missed a thing.

So sad it was so bad, it could have been so good.

It bills its self as something of a augmented reality horror movie, getting to to mess with peoples minds.

I'm not sure if the makers of the movie know what augmented reality really is, as its "use" in the movie is more of VR.

The acting is decent but the story line is stretched thin to hit 1:22 running time, at least the version I saw. There's really not much there, only 4 actors on screen have lines, 3 of which you learn no back story and there for have little emotional connection to.

It attempts to be a psychosis horror but anyone who has a few minutes of film training can easily see its a low budget set, in an abandoned building hidden by low light and lots of subtle color.

Decent watch, if forgettable, at best, won't watch again, and can't recommend.

(Please keep in mind that the mobile app erased my original review, so I'm a little peeved.)

My biggest concern with this movie is that it concentrates on fear mongering against technology more than creating a good movie. I understand that it's supposed to be a psychological thriller, but that should be what you're concentrating on and not teaching the audience to fear technology: just tell the story.

In fairness, it did do a lot with a clearly low budget: low level actors you won't recognize and (mostly) kids for background characters, Google Glass (or similar) tech, an underground bunker setting, and not particularly great cg effects, but they managed to get by.

The real crux of the story is that isolated in a bunker, they kind of think they're going mad, so "what's real" comes into play, and then it becomes the inevitable question of "is it me or is the technology out to get me", and when that tech is a virtual OS (think Cortana), then there is no telling what is going to happen so there is no expectation, thus nothing to subvert. Its a rule in both Horror and Comedy to play with the audience's tension / expectation (Rules of 3) to establish a pattern, and then break/deliver on it in a surprising manner.

The camera work also messed with me quite a bit. Not only do you have a switch between natural 3rd person camera work and 1st person perspective, the camera work alternatives between almost imperceptively still and wildly jerk about as the audience was intended to experience an earthquake. It feels like the movie was trying to be "Hardcore Henry" esque, but didn't actually do anything special with the camera angles and distracted with the Head's Up Display (HUD).

There's a movie here, you might even like it, but I'm willing to bet that the movie is too unique without much spectacular happening for most people to enjoy it.