Review: ‘Welcome to the Blumhouse: The Lie & Black Box’
A trio of terrific performances can’t save ‘The Lie’ from being an underbaked, overwrought mess. ‘Black Box’, on the other hand, is an engrossing, inventive and surprisingly emotional sci-fi thriller that is worth the watch.
Veena Sud’s ‘The Lie’ and Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr’s ‘Black Box’ are the first two installments of ‘Welcome to the Blumhouse’, a partnership between Amazon and Blumhouse Productions, the production company behind some of the biggest horror films of the past decade, that will see the release of eight Blumhouse films exclusively on Prime Video.
‘The Lie’ stars Peter Sarsgaard and Mireille Enos as the divorced parents of Kayla (Joey King), a 15-year old girl still reeling from her parents’ separation. Moody and anxious, Kayla constantly lashes out against her mother, who is forcing her to go on a ballet retreat despite her lack of interest and enthusiasm. A chance encounter with Brittany (Devery Jacobs), a classmate of Kayla’s who she seems to have a tense relationship with, on the drive over to the retreat leads to a terrible accident that leaves the entire family reeling in the aftermath and torn on how to resolve it.
‘Black Box’, the directorial debut of Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr, centers on Nolan (Mamoudou Athie), a single father who is suffering from a bout of amnesia after a near-fatal car accident that resulted in his wife’s death. Struggling to recover any of his memories and trying his best to raise a daughter he has no recollection of fathering, Nolan volunteers for an experimental treatment courtesy of Dr. Lilian (Phylicia Rashad) that might help him relive his past experiences, but he soon comes to realize that it comes with a horrific cost.
While both ‘The Lie’ and ‘Black Box’ start off on a similar note, with a montage of home videos harkening back to happier moments in the characters’ lives playing throughout the opening credits of both, they ultimately couldn’t be more different. ‘The Lie’ is a tense psychological drama that explores how far parents would go in order to protect their own children – perhaps at the cost of their own moral integrity, while ‘Black Box’ is an inventive sci-fi thriller that tackles a different question altogether: Who exactly are we without our memories?
Led by a terrific trio of performances courtesy of King, Sarsgaard and Enos, ‘The Lie’ starts off promisingly with a tense, atmospheric car ride with Kayla, her mother and new stepfather. Right from the start, you can tell something is off with Kayla, her interactions with her mother too fraught, too bitter. We barely get a glimpse of what their life was like before the separation and the tragedy, but thanks to electrifying performances from King, Sarsgaard and Enos, we can easily imagine it, their chemistry hinting at years of shared history. Sadly, the movie ends up being an overwrought, underbaked mess – its simple plotline spread too thin in order to ensure it has enough content for a feature length running time. Its ending, which sparked controversy and derision when it debuted at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, was right up my alley; a cruel, incredibly bleak conclusion that brings to mind the works of Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala. But its glacial pace and lack of visual flare undercuts any potential it might have had.
‘Black Box’, on the other hand, fares much better thanks to slick direction and inventive visual cues courtesy of writer and director Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr. As the lost and confused Nolan, Athie makes for a compelling leading man, taking viewers on a journey of self-discovery that goes to unexpected places. Rashad turns in a sharp, charismatic performance as a mysterious doctor with a hidden agenda, while newcomer Amanda Christine lights up the screen as Nolan’s precocious daughter who is wise beyond her years. A third-act twist gives the film an emotional edge that will undoubtedly strike a chord with viewers but the film ultimately ends up stumbling towards the end when it tries to wrap up several of its plotlines too swiftly, leaving a trail of unrealized potential in its wake.
It’s easy to see why both of these films were relegated to streaming. They don’t contain any of the visual flare or stylized nature of Blumhouse’s theatrical releases. In fact, ‘Black Box’ plays off like a watered down version of Leigh Whannell’s ‘Upgrade’, another Blumhouse production. Both also wouldn’t have seemed out of place in a season of ‘Black Mirror’ and probably would have benefitted from the shorter runtime but ultimately, ‘The Lie’ and ‘Black Box’ are worth watching due to their great performances and intriguing concepts, even though they aren’t given the complexity and emotional depth they deserve.
The Lie:
Rating: 2/5
Black Box:
Rating: 3.5/5
‘The Lie’ and ‘Black Box’ debut on Prime Video on October 6.