''The Lie'' is a 2018

psychological horror Psychological horror is a genre, subgenre of horror fiction, horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and Mental state, psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre frequent ...

film written and directed by

Veena Sud Veena Cabreros-Sud (pronounced "Sood") is a Canadian-born American television writer, director, and producer. She is best known for developing the American television drama '' The Killing'', which is based on the Danish series '' Forbrydelsen (T ...

. The film is a remake of the 2015 German film ''

We Monsters ''We Monsters'' (german: Wir Monster) is a 2015 German drama film directed by Sebastian Ko. It was screened in the Discovery section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. Cast * Mehdi Nebbou as Paul * Ulrike C. Tscharre as Christine ...

'', and stars

Mireille Enos Mireille Enos (; born September 22, 1975) is an American actress. Drawn to acting from a young age, she graduated in performing arts from Brigham Young University, where she was awarded the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship. Having made her acting ...

Peter Sarsgaard John Peter Sarsgaard (; born March 7, 1971) is an American actor. His first feature role was in '' Dead Man Walking'' in 1995. He then appeared in the 1998 independent films ''Another Day in Paradise'' and ''Desert Blue''. That same year, Sarsga ...

and

Joey King Joey Lynn King (born July 30, 1999) is an American actress. She first gained recognition for portraying Ramona Quimby in the comedy film ''Ramona and Beezus'' (2010) and has since gained wider recognition for her lead role in ''The Kissing Boot ...

Jason Blum Jason Ferus Blum "Jason Ferus Blum was born in LA in 1969 to Shirley Neilsen, an art professor, and Irving Blum, an art dealer" (; born 1969) is an American film and television producer. He is the founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions, whic ...

serves as a producer under his

Blumhouse Television Blumhouse Productions (; also known as BH Productions or simply BH) is an American film and television production company founded in 2000 by Jason Blum. It is known mainly for producing horror films, such as ''Paranormal Activity'', ''Insidio ...

banner. ''The Lie'' premiered at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

on September 13, 2018. It was later released on October 6, 2020, by

Amazon Studios Amazon Studios is an American television and film producer and distributor that is a subsidiary of Amazon. It specializes in developing television series and distributing and producing films. It was started in late 2010. Content is distributed th ...

, as the first installment in the anthological ''Welcome to the Blumhouse'' film series.

Plot

Divorced father Jay drives his daughter Kayla to a

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

retreat. On the way, they find Kayla's friend, Britney, 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 her 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

Production

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

on the film began in January 2018. Its working title was ''Between the Earth and the Sky''. The film is set in New York and filmed Toronto area.

Release

The film premiered at the

on September 13, 2018. In August 2020,

acquired distribution rights to the film, and premiered it on October 6, 2020. Along with ''

Black Box In science, computing, and engineering, a black box is a system which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs (or transfer characteristics), without any knowledge of its internal workings. Its implementation is "opaque" (black). The te ...

'', it's one of the first two movies released from

Blumhouse Productions Blumhouse Productions (; also known as BH Productions or simply BH) is an American film and television production company founded in 2000 by Jason Blum. It is known mainly for producing horror films, such as ''Paranormal Activity'', ''Insidio ...

's 8-film anthology ''

Welcome to the Blumhouse ''Welcome to the Blumhouse'' is a film series consisting of theme-related anthological horror stories, developed and produced by Blumhouse Productions for Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American su ...

''.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads, "Queasily compelling without ever truly coming together, ''The Lie'' won't fool many viewers seeking worthwhile horror fare." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 45 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lie 2010s psychological horror films 2010s teen horror films 2018 films 2018 horror thriller films 2018 psychological thriller films Amazon Studios films American horror thriller films American psychological horror films American psychological thriller films American remakes of German films American teen horror films Blumhouse Productions films Canadian horror thriller films Canadian psychological horror films Films produced by Jason Blum Films scored by Tamar-kali Films set in Canada Films shot in Ontario Remakes of German films 2010s English-language films Amazon Prime Video original films 2010s Canadian films 2010s American films