Review: LET'S BE EVIL, Going Underground With Augmented Reality

What to do about children who are not in control of themselves -- and aren't particularly acting their age?

Presented largely through the eyes of three adults, Let's Be Evil begins with a summer-camp vibe. Directed by Martin Owen, the movie sets up a very odd camp, located underground in a coldly austere environment. Jenny (Elizabeth Morris) arrives, grateful for the job. She needs the money to help her infirm mother. She quickly meets Tiggs (Kara Tointon) and Darby (Elliot James Langridge), who are also about her age, and they're all given augmented reality glasses.

Their job is to act as chaperones for a small group of children who are enrolled in special advance learning classes. They, too, wear augmented reality glasses, sitting around a table, poking at the air in front of them. Through their glasses, the kids see computer terminals, but there is no apparent interaction with human instructors or even with their fellow students. The children are a solemn lot, revealing no emotions as they stiffly walk from their barracks to class to mealtimes and back again. What's wrong with them?

No other adults are on the premises to guide or supervise the chaperones. Instead, there is Arial (voiced by Natasha Moore, portrayed by Jamie Bernadette), a flickering computer construct that proves to be a very unreliable guide for the chaperones, offering up a superficial appearance of omniscience that better resembles a chunk of Swiss cheese.

As the children diligently march through their ceaseless rounds of learning, Jenny makes an effort to establish contact with them as individuals, to little success until Cassandra (Isabelle Allen) starts to respond. They begin to bond and then things start to go very, very wrong.

To clarify, Let's Be Evil is presented largely through the eyes of three adults as they watch everything through their augmented reality glasses. If they take the glasses off, they are completely blind. Initially, this is quite intriguing, but the audience is not privy to any additional information provided via the glasses. Too often, this leads to confusion rather than enlightenment.

Because we're observing the proceedings in a first-person view, when the perspective changes, the only ready clue that the point of view has changed is the character's name in the upper left hand corner of the screen. Also, the underground facility is dark and underlit, which makes it difficult to follow the action as it unfolds.

If the story was stronger, it would be easier to get caught up in the movie. Without venturing into spoiler territory, it's difficult to understand why things start to go wrong, and those questions linger right through the ending.

The three leads deliver empathetic performances as young, balanced and happy adults who are slowly drawn into a baffling scenario that is beyond their ability to comprehend. They act as effective surrogates for audience members who may be similarly baffled by Let's Be Evil, a well-intended attempt to bring something new to the thriller genre.

The film opens in select U.S. theaters on Friday, August 5, via IFC Midnight. It will also be available to watch via various Video On Demand platforms.