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The Lie (2018 film)

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The Lie
Official poster
Directed byVeena Sud
Written byVeena Sud
Based onWe Monsters
by Marcus Seibert and Sebastian Ko
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyPeter Wunstorf
Edited byPhil Fowler
Music byTamar-kali
Production
companies
Distributed byAmazon Studios
Release dates
  • September 13, 2018 (2018-09-13) (TIFF)
  • October 6, 2020 (2020-10-06) (United States)
Running time
97 minutes
Countries
LanguageEnglish
Budget< $10 million[3]

The Lie is a 2018 psychological horror film written and directed by Veena Sud. The film is a remake of the 2015 German film We Monsters,[4] and stars Mireille Enos, Peter Sarsgaard and Joey King.[5] Jason Blum serves as a producer under his Blumhouse Television banner.

The Lie premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 13, 2018. It was later released on October 6, 2020, by Amazon Studios, as the first installment in the anthological Welcome to the Blumhouse film series.

Plot

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Divorced father Jay drives his daughter Kayla to a ballet retreat. On the way, they find Kayla's friend, Britney, walking on the side of the road, and give her a lift to the same retreat. After pulling over so Britney can go to the bathroom in the woods, Jay hears Kayla scream and finds her sitting alone on a bridge over a river. Kayla claims she pushed Britney off the bridge. Jay checks the area for Britney's body, but does not find it and assumes she drowned and was washed away. Kayla finds Britney's purse and they go to see Kayla's mother, Rebecca, an attorney.

At Rebecca's home, Kayla tells her that she murdered Britney. Britney's father, Sam, arrives in search of his daughter. When he asks to speak to Kayla, Rebecca lies, saying she is at the doctor. Later on, Sam gets suspicious and returns to discover that Rebecca lied and Kayla is at home. After a physical altercation with Jay, Sam threatens to go to the police. Noting that Britney had a bruise on her face, Jay convinces Rebecca to try and put suspicion on Sam for the disappearance. She contacts a police associate, Detective Kenji Tagata, to accuse Sam of abusing Britney. When Kenji interrogates Sam, he denies hitting Britney and admits that she has run away before. Kenji interviews Kayla, who says that Sam has a bad temper and hit Britney before.

Sam spots Kayla outside Jay's apartment and tries to grab her, but she retreats back into the house as he is chasing her, banging on the windows, and screaming her name. Jay and Rebecca try to bury Britney's phone behind Sam's house, but he catches them in the act. Before they flee, Sam tells them that he knows Kayla killed Britney. When Sam appears in front of their car, Rebecca purposefully drives into him. Jay and Rebecca consider calling for help before letting him bleed to death and leaving his corpse in the road.

The next morning, as Jay and Rebecca scrub Sam's blood off her car, Britney suddenly appears, alive and well, asking to speak to Kayla. Britney admits her disappearance was no more than an elaborate ruse between her and Kayla to allow for Britney to visit her boyfriend. Britney becomes uncomfortable and leaves after noticing a bloodied rag, and their suspicious reactions. Jay and Rebecca confront Kayla, who tearfully admits that she went along with Britney's plan, and escalated the lie by pretending to "push" Britney off the bridge, hoping that the pseudo-tragedy would bring her divorced parents back together. As the family embrace and Kayla begs her parents not to leave her, the doorbell rings and incoming police sirens are heard.

Cast

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Production

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Principal photography on the film began in January 2018.[6] Its working title was Between the Earth and the Sky.[5] The film is set in New York[7] and filmed in the Toronto area.[8]

Release

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The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 13, 2018.[1] In August 2020, Amazon Studios acquired distribution rights to the film, and premiered it on October 6, 2020. Along with Black Box, it's one of the first two movies released from Blumhouse Productions's 8-film anthology Welcome to the Blumhouse.[9]

Reception

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On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 43% based on 77 reviews, with an average rating of 5.1/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Queasily compelling without ever truly coming together, The Lie won't fool many viewers seeking worthwhile horror fare."[10] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 45 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[11]

Kate Erbland of IndieWire wrote, "Too stupid to be the hard-hitting drama it was first sold as and too self-important to be the black comedy it really should be, Sud’s film is a master class in bad decision-making, improbable choices, and overwrought acting."[12] A.A. Dowd of The A.V. Club gave it a C- grade, calling the film "laughably ludicrous" and saying that it "seems to fancy itself a meditation on the extremes parents will go to on their children’s behalf, but it’s curiously disinterested in what should be its driving dramatic force: how Kayla’s crime—and how little it seems to weigh on her conscience—might challenge their unconditional love for her."[13]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "The Lie". Archived from the original on 2021-01-02. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  2. ^ "TIFF 2018: Outlaw King to open Toronto film fest; Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy to close". The Canadian Press. August 14, 2018. Archived from the original on 2 January 2021. Retrieved August 23, 2018.
  3. ^ Spangler, Todd (October 27, 2020). " Borat 2 Drew 'Tens of Millions' of Viewers Over Opening Weekend, Amazon Says". Variety. Archived from the original on October 27, 2020. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
  4. ^ Alice Thorpe (11 February 2016). "'The Killing' Creator Veena Sud To Pen Remake of German Thriller 'We Monsters'". Indiewire. Archived from the original on 2 January 2021. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  5. ^ a b Berger, Laura (January 22, 2018). "Veena Sud Reuniting with Mireille Enos for New Feature". Women and Hollywood. Archived from the original on December 31, 2020. Retrieved January 31, 2018.
  6. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (January 19, 2018). "Blumhouse Filming Veena Sud's Family Drama Movie 'Between The Earth And Sky' – Sundance". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on January 2, 2021. Retrieved January 31, 2018.
  7. ^ Leslie Felperin (2018-09-12). "'The Lie': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 2021-01-02. Retrieved 2018-09-16.
  8. ^ Leah Collins. "You'd never guess, but these 9 movies at TIFF 2018 are 'secretly Canadian'". Archived from the original on 2021-01-02. Retrieved 2018-09-16.
  9. ^ Rubin, Rebecca (August 13, 2020). "Eight New Blumhouse Horror Films Coming to Amazon". Variety. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  10. ^ "The Lie (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Archived from the original on January 2, 2021. Retrieved October 10, 2021.
  11. ^ "The Lie (2020) Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on January 2, 2021. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  12. ^ Erbland, Kate (October 6, 2020). "'The Lie' Review: Joey King Stars in Blumhouse's Hilariously Overwrought Master Class in Bad Decision-Making". IndieWire. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
  13. ^ Dowd, A.A. (14 October 2020). "Don't expect many scares from the first four movies in Amazon's Welcome To The Blumhouse series". The A. V. Club. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
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