An Amazon Studios Picture, Written and Directed By Veena Sud.
‘The Lie’ is one of the opening parts of Amazon’s hotly anticipated ‘Welcome to Blumhouse’ collection of films that launched on the streaming service this October.
Despite being filmed in early 2018, the film is only just getting released and it very much feels like a film that was made a while ago, as star Joey King looks notably younger.
The story focuses on a separated husband and wife who are forced to come back together to cover up an apparent murder committed by their daughter, and the film focuses on the fallout of this lie.
While it is advertised as a horror film, this is much more of a standard thriller, and in many ways feels like a soap opera, with big twists and over the top character decisions leading to very soapy moments. This sort of film has its audience, but that wasn’t what ‘The Lie’ was advertised as.
Mireille Enos and Peter Sarsgaard do a decent job in the lead roles, that are packed full of every cliche possible and really require them to work hard to make it effective. As for Joey King, she does a good job in a really tough role of an incredibly unlikable and unpredictable teenager.
For the most part, the film barely deviates from what you would expect it to do, and despite a genuinely surprising twist ending, it is mostly a straight forward film.
It’s not necessarily bad, but with the set-up and cast, I thought Blumhouse might have pulled off something a little more inventive.
Rating = 2.5/5
