Black Box/The Lie

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Black Box

A man loses his wife and his memory in an auto accident.  After exhausting all the regular therapies, a new doctor has a machine she refers to as the “Black Box,” making promises that the Black Box can help him enter his dreams to find the memories lost, but something is hiding is his dreams that he must expose before this “thing” destroys any chance to find his identity. Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Directs. Mamoudou Athie and Phylicia Rashad star.

The film has a Twilight Zone feel to it. Where it’s not as scary as it is creepy, although there is that “something” in his dreams that keeps trying to get him that will definitely cause nightmares for many. All the performances are good and the film moves well. Both films are part of Blumhouse films adding some Spooky to the October line-up. Premiers 10/06 on Amazon Prime. 

The Lie

The questions here are “How far will parents go to protect their child? What if that child killed someone? What if they did it deliberately?” In The Lie, parents, Jay and Rebecca (Peter Sarsgaard and Mireilla Enos) discover their daughter Kayla (Joey King) has deliberately killed a close friend of hers. These parents decide that no-one knows Kayla was with this friend, so they decide to cover it up. When the missing girl’s father come calling asking what Kayla knows, everything goes crazy from there. 

Keeping me happy not to have children, Director Veena Sud leaves you on edge as the family only sinks lower and lower, as they keep trying to cover up the murder at any cost. Sarsguaad and Enos give us every emotion you can think of as their lies get exposed, and King is eerily perfect as a child going from regret to revenge. Once again, glad to be barren.  

Black Box 2 ½ stars

The Lie 3 stars