The Lie is a 2018 Psychological Horror film, starring Joey King, Mireille Enos, Peter Sarsgaard, and Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs. The film was written and directed by Veena Sud, and is a remake of the 2015 German film We Monsters.
Teenager Kayla (King) splits her time between her divorced parents, Jay (Sarsgaard) and Rebecca (Enos). One night, while Jay drives Kayla to dance camp, they spot Kayla's best friend Britney (Jacobs) on the side of the road. When they stop to offer her a ride, their good intentions soon result in terrible consequences.
The film was produced by Blumhouse Productions, and originally released at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2018. It was later acquired by Amazon Studios for distribution through Prime Video, and billed as the first entry in their Horror Anthology film series Welcome To The Blumhouse.
Tropes in the film include:
- All for Nothing: All of the protagonists' anxiety and compounded wrongdoing were all for absolutely no reason. The initial murder they were trying to cover up never actually happened, and Rebecca's killing Sam in ambiguous self-defense from a violent man was perhaps not justified because he may have never been violent.
- Ambiguous Situation: The ending leaves the truth of all of Kayla's stories up in the air. Several of them have been proven demonstrably false.
- Bigot with a Badge: Implied with Detective Barnes. When he and Det. Tagata go to Sam's house to question him about Britney's disappearance, Barnes bluntly asks him if he is Indian or Arab or what. Sam answers through gritted teeth that he is Pakistani. Barnes never clarifies the point of his question.
- Chekhov's Gun: Around the start of the film, Rebecca reminds Kayla about having her asthma inhaler in her bag. Later, the inhaler is found near the bridge where Kayla said she pushed off Britney.
- Clothing Damage: While Kayla is taking a bath, Rebecca notices that her almost-new sweater is torn and chides her daughter about not taking good care of her things. Later, after she learns what happened, she burns the sweater.
- Downer Ending: Rebecca and Jay are about to get arrested for Sam's death and/or interfering with the investigation. Kayla is going to be left without her parents. Britney is about to discover that her father is dead thanks to her and Kayla pretending that Britney was pushed to her death.
- Fiery Cover Up: After Rebecca realizes that Kayla's sweater must have torn during her struggle with Britney, she burns it. Except there was no struggle and most likely Kayla tore up her sweater herself to make it seem like there was one.
- Murder by Inaction: Sam begs for help after being run over. Rebecca, who was driving, tries to call 911 but Jay stops her and they both watch the man die.
- No One Could Survive That!: Jay does not think Britney could have survived Kayla pushing her off the bridge. Even if she survived falling from such a height, she would have drowned or died of hypothermia. That's how he rationalized not calling for help. Of course, he doesn't know Britney was not pushed at all and is very much alive.
- The Reveal: Britney's disappearance was a hoax. The story about Kayla pushing her off the bridge was a lie to cover up Britney going away for a few days with her boyfriend. Kayla just kept up the lie because she saw her parents acting happy for a minute and wanted them to get back together.
- Self-Harm: Jay notices some ugly scratches on Kayla's arm. She explains them away as something that takes the pain away. Rebecca later tells him that she took Kayla to see "somebody" but didn't stop.
- Snowball Lie: Sam (Britney's father) goes to Rebecca's house demanding to talk to Kayla. Rebecca lies that Jay took her to the doctor. When Jay turns up at just the wrong moment, she claims that Kayla is taking some tests... and then Kayla pops out of the house. The Blatant Lies get to be too much for Sam.
- Teens Are Monsters: Whether it was Britney's idea or Kayla's idea to pretend the latter pushed the former to her death just to cover up an escapade with a boyfriend either didn't think of what that would do to their parents or did not care.
