Welcome to the 3rd review of the “Welcome to the Blumhouse” October Collection from Mark’s Dark Corner. It appears there are only the four movies, not eight, since I’ve seen nothing regarding the final four additions. Perhaps in November? Check out my other reviews on The Box and Nocturne also here in the Bloody Reel movie reviews.
One odd thing I found about The Lie is that it was actually released in 2018 but is being highlighted here in Blumhouse’s 2020 collection for October. It was previous named Between Earth and Sky. I never heard of this movie before now.
So far, unfortunately, The Lie is my least favorite of the four in the Blumhouse collection. And…I had a feeling it would be that way…The preview made the movie seem interesting, but seemed like a typical drama movie.
Also, let it be known, this is not a horror movie.
Unless, that is, you consider teenagers a horror story in general. And perhaps you do! But I would deem it to be more of a drama thriller, just like The Lie turned out to be.
Jay (Peter Sarsgaard) is the father of Kayla (Joey King), the cinematic stereotypical moody distant teenager with secrets from her parents. Quickly, we find out Kayla’s there is dysfunction in the family as the parents aren’t together anymore, nor do they really get along. This directly attributes to Kayla’s attitude and persona, as it often does.
The movie begins with the fateful day from which this entire movie is based upon. On the way to a dance camp, Jay and Kayla pick up Kayla’s friend, Brittney from the side of the road. She is an attractive flirty teen (yes, even with Kayla’s father). On the way to the camp, in the middle of nowhere, Brittney insists they stop so she can go bathroom, and if not, she’ll pee in the seat.
So, they stop. As would I!
The two girls tromp off into the snowy woods to take care of business but are gone for a while. Jay, wondering what is taking them so long, gets out of the car, then hears one of the girls screaming in terror or agony, we don’t know which one, since it is off screen.
Upon arrival, Jay finds Kayla sitting and teetering on the ledge of a tall bridge above raging cold water. Jay finds that Brittney is missing, and his daughter is in a state of shock. After some arduous searching for Brittney, Kayla reveals to her father a dark statement of what happened, which is acknowledged in the movie preview, she pushed her friend over the bridge ledge into the river.
The story from here goes down a dark traumatic path as Jay, Kayla, and Rebecca (Kayla’s mother) try to cope with what happened and dealing the decisions of what to do with the situation. If they go to the police their daughter could go away forever, but hiding what Kayla stated is possibly playing accomplice to murder. The Lie really addresses how far parents, even separated parents, will go to protect the well-being of their child.
Things get even muddier and difficult for the family as Brittney’s father begins to harass them demanding to know where his daughter is. He feels something isn’t right with what the family is telling him. The Jay and Rebecca deny all knowledge of Brittney’s whereabouts and Kayla’s actually having seen her friend the day she disappeared.
Oh but, lies like this never stay uncovered, do they? Especially with technology being able to trace a phone’s location, or the drive of a parent to find his missing child.
The twist that existed in this movie was a good one, but I was able to predict it very early in the movie. So, I really was just watching a family going down the tubes, in flames, with no fire hose to help them put out the flames. As the parents try to hide their daughter’s secret, in the stance of “protect our child to the bitter end”, traumatic events continue to occur forcing that downward spiral toward said bitter end.
Kayla, the daughter, does nothing rational to help keep the lie a secret, and seemingly is acting to upend what her parents are trying to do for her. She acts way too happy or normal for a teen that has just killed her supposed best friend. No doubt, the writers did this purposefully to drive home the point that something was wrong with Kayla. However, this actually got a bit annoying to me and the overall storyline just didn’t hit home for me.
Peter Sarsgaard’s acting was spot on, as it always is for him. He may be the highlight of The Lie, as the rest of the movie was predictable, stereotypical, and just a bit depressing. The movie was okay, but perhaps a little typical and drab. The ending of the movie was very tragic and didn’t really leave me feeling that excitement of a well-written well-produced Horror flick.
I titled this review “The Numbers Don’t Lie”, both to make a play on ‘the lie’ part, but also because the numbers for the ratings and reviews for The Lie are lower than a lot of other Horror movies released recently.
At least it’s free, if you subscribe to Amazon Prime Video!
The Lie
Released: 2018
Rating: R
Director: Veena Sud
Writer: Veena Sud (based off the film “Wir Monster” by Marcus Seibert)
IMDB Rating: 5.8 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes: 43%
Metascore: 45 out of 100
Free Streaming as of Blog posting: Prime Video
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