Let's Be Evil
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''Let's Be Evil'' is a 2016 British
science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
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horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...
directed by Martin Owen and written by Elizabeth Morris, Martin Owen, and Jonathan Willis. The film stars
Isabelle Allen Isabelle Lucy Allen (born 16 March 2002) is an English stage and screen actress known for her role as the young Cosette in the 2012 film adaptation of ''Les Misérables''. The role earned her critical acclaim and various film cast awards such a ...
,
Jamie Bernadette Jamie Bernadette Watkins (born December 14, 1987) is an American actress. She has appeared in many horror films. Early life Watkins was born and raised in Kankakee, Illinois. She is the youngest of nine children, five sisters and four brothers. ...
,
Kara Tointon Kara Louise Tointon (born 5 August 1983) is an English actress, known for portraying the role of Dawn Swann in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders''. In 2010, she won the BBC competition series ''Strictly Come Dancing'', and in 2015, she appeared a ...
, Elliot James Langridge, and Elizabeth Morris, and focuses on Jenny, who—having been tasked with caring for a sick parent in need of expensive meds—is starting a brand-new job as a chaperone in a programme for gifted youths. The film was one of the special screenings at
Slamdance Film Festival The Slamdance Film Festival is an annual film festival focused on emerging artists. The annual week-long festival is held in Los Angeles in late February and is the main event organized by the year-round Slamdance organization. The organization ...
2016. The film was produced by Posterity Pictures, and was theatrically released on 5 August 2016 by
IFC Midnight Independent Film Company (formerly IFC Films) is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC, owned by AMC Networks. It mainly distributes independent features under its own name, select fo ...
.


Plot

A young girl named Jenny witnesses her father being shot to death. American society begins to suffer as the inefficient educational system threatens to lead to an entire generation of
obese Obesity is a medical condition, considered by multiple organizations to be a disease, in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it can potentially have negative effects on health. People are classified as obese when ...
children with below average IQ, leading to a lack of
innovation Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of new goods or service (economics), services or improvement in offering goods or services. ISO TC 279 in the standard ISO 56000:2020 defines innovation as "a n ...
and the stagnation of America’s economy. Jenny as an adult lives with her terminally ill mother and to pay medical bills she accepts a job as chaperone for intellectually gifted children from the Posterity Project, a programme designed to make smart children smarter. Jenny meets fellow chaperones Tiggs and Darby in the programme's underground facility which runs in complete darkness, requiring the use of
virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...
glasses to see, also providing the children access to their lessons. Jenny meets ARIAL (Augmented Reality Information Advanced Learning), the
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
who runs the facility. Jenny, Tiggs, and Darby are warned that, outside of their physical needs, the children are not to be distracted from their lessons or their employment will be terminated. Jenny is uncomfortable that the children only have structured lessons and advises ARIAL that children need opportunities to play. One of the children, Cassandra, is noticed by Jenny, who learns Cassandra is the programme's smartest participant. Jenny attempts to communicate with the students but is informed by ARIAL the students only converse with each other through virtual reality, so Jenny is ignored. Jenny notices Cassandra is missing and finds her hiding without her glasses, allowing Jenny to begin bonding with her. That night ARIAL informs Jenny that Cassandra is not in her bedroom. Searching for her, Jenny is startled by strange visions in which Cassandra vanishes into thin air after scratching a threat onto a door. By the time Jenny brings Tiggs and Darby to the door, the threat has vanished and Cassandra is asleep in her bed. Jenny begins to have strange dreams and on several occasions is frightened by malfunctions to her glasses showing her visions of things that are not there, along with malfunctions to the facility's electronic systems. Jenny decides to quit, but is convinced to stay by Tiggs. Cassandra later apologises to Jenny for everything that scared her, claiming that it was the other children playing pranks. A short time later all the children disappear, with ARIAL unable to locate them with her tracking software. Jenny is terrified by a vision of the children shooting her in the face. ARIAL immediately informs them that they must escape the facility, as the children have begun hacking her. ARIAL abruptly shuts down while Darby and Tiggs are both attacked and disappear. While searching for the exit Jenny finds Cassandra hiding alone with her glasses missing just as ARIAL manages to reboot. Cassandra claims that, because she is newest to the programme, the other children bully her by stealing her glasses, and that the frequent removal of her glasses stopped her from fully connecting to the system, which is why she isn’t yet like the other children. They find Tiggs, who claims that the children attacked her but she escaped. Together they evade the children and find Darby tied up and beaten. Heading for the exit, they find the door locked with a man on the other side who Cassandra identifies as a previous chaperone. They watch as the children burn the man alive before vanishing. ARIAL directs them to an air vent that should lead them to safety; however, upon reaching the safe area, Darby is attacked by the children who suffocate him with a plastic bag while Cassandra and Tiggs are attacked in the dark and dragged away, leaving Jenny alone. Jenny escapes the children by puncturing a pipe and spraying one of the children in the face with hot steam, revealing that the children made themselves invisible by tampering with the virtual reality glasses. Jenny locates Cassandra who reveals that she can see without glasses, as she has virtual reality
contact lens Contact lenses, or simply contacts, are thin lenses placed directly on the surface of the eyes. Contact lenses are ocular prosthetic devices used by over 150 million people worldwide, and they can be worn to correct vision or for cosmetic ...
es, and is in fact the children’s leader and has even been controlling ARIAL. Cassandra explains that she agreed with Jenny’s opinion that children need to play, so they have been playing a game with Jenny trapped in a virtual reality
time loop The time loop or temporal loop is a plot device in fiction whereby Character (arts), characters re-experience a span of time which is repeated, sometimes more than once, with some hope of breaking out of the cycle of repetition. Time loops are co ...
as their favourite toy. Jenny turns to run only to find herself in a
simulation A simulation is an imitative representation of a process or system that could exist in the real world. In this broad sense, simulation can often be used interchangeably with model. Sometimes a clear distinction between the two terms is made, in ...
of her apartment with
amnesia Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or brain diseases,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be temporarily caused by t ...
. Jenny answers the phone and once again accepts a job as an adult chaperone for the Posterity Project while Cassandra watches and smiles.


Cast

*
Isabelle Allen Isabelle Lucy Allen (born 16 March 2002) is an English stage and screen actress known for her role as the young Cosette in the 2012 film adaptation of ''Les Misérables''. The role earned her critical acclaim and various film cast awards such a ...
as Cassandra *
Jamie Bernadette Jamie Bernadette Watkins (born December 14, 1987) is an American actress. She has appeared in many horror films. Early life Watkins was born and raised in Kankakee, Illinois. She is the youngest of nine children, five sisters and four brothers. ...
as Body of Arial *
Kara Tointon Kara Louise Tointon (born 5 August 1983) is an English actress, known for portraying the role of Dawn Swann in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders''. In 2010, she won the BBC competition series ''Strictly Come Dancing'', and in 2015, she appeared a ...
as Tiggs * Elliot James Langridge as Darby * Brooke Johnston as Newsroom Anchor * Elizabeth Morris as Jenny * Sophie Willis as Young Jenny * Jules Brown as Jenny's Dad


Reception

The film holds a 17% rating on ''Rotten Tomatoes'' based on 12 reviews.


References


External links

* * {{Rotten Tomatoes, lets_be_evil 2016 horror films 2016 films 2010s English-language films Films scored by Julian Scherle English-language horror films