Level 16 (2018 movie)

Category: girl-power psychological drama

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Yes, the underlying story of this movie has been done before, and probably better, but there is a certain low-budget charm that Level 16 has that makes it not the worst movie around.

The basic premise of Level 16 is that orphaned teenage girls are kept in an isolated environment without fresh air or sunshine and taught through fear and submission to be obedient and feminine - but surprise of surprises, it turns out that the couple at the head of the operation are harvesting the girls for their pure skin. A piece of information shatters the belief in the environment the girls are in and eventually, the lead girl faces the courage to go against everything years of indoctrination instilled in her in order to break out and bring an end to the nefarious deeds taking place…inside a Russian prison, of all places.

As I said, nothing that hasn't been done before.

I will make a few points, though:

Despite the fact that this was listed as a horror/thriller, there are no deaths on screen, no blood spilled, and the closest we get to horror is the view of a corpse that has had the face removed. It's probably more of a psychological drama than anything else, whereas I was expecting something darker and bloodier.

There are also subtle hints that the girls are being sexually abused, but this is not shown on-screen save for one scene where a guard walks in and sits on a girl's bed, which makes me think that this movie was deliberately curated in order to avoid an R-rating.

There is one piece of dialogue where the lead woman says, after she is confronted by the lead girl, that "I'm going to close this place tonight….or tomorrow!". Don't know if that is bad acting, bad scriptwriting or bad editing, but it certainly looks bad.

The part where the lead girl and the other rebel girl are on the stairs and about to part ways - the dialogue was very jumbled and lost me. Given that my viewing of this movie didn't have subtitles as well, I can only surmise that what was supposed the be the height of drama and courage came across as overcooked.

In the end, this isn't the worst movie I've seen and not a total waste of time. Having a young cast is a good way for people to get acting experience, and a lot of the camera work and editing was quite decent.

And (spoiler alert), why is it called Level 16? Because for the girls to be ready to be sold for their skin, the masters in charge make them graduate up sixteen levels. Genius, right?

FINAL RATING: 3/5 STARS