There are so many hidden gems of every kind buried deep in the libraries of virtually every streaming service that it’s nigh-on impossible to dig them up unless it’s either by accident or after a lengthy scroll through the endless options, but at least 2018’s severely underrated Level 16 has managed to break free from its on-demand captivity.
Per FlixPatrol, the nightmarish psychological sci-fi horror has become a Top 10 on Prime Video in multiple countries around the world, and it’s most definitely a movie that needed to be seen by a great deal more people. Self-contained, cerebral, vicious, and packing a killer twist, there’s a reason why it garnered an 83 percent approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Katie Douglas’ Vivien finds herself locked in The Vestalis Academy, a boarding school that looks an awful lot like a prison. Keeping herself to herself, she tries not to rock the boat until she discovers her former friend is also a student/resident/inmate of the mysterious facility. Putting their bad blood to one side, they endeavor to discover what’s really going on.
As you can imagine, they do not care in the slightest for what they find, with a string of jaw-dropping and stomach-churning revelations throwing twists on top of turns, all drenched in an eerie brightly-lit atmosphere that’s difficult to look at in both figurative and literal terms.
Having flown right under the radar the first time around, Level 16 is back with a vengeance, and it’s feeling a lot more comfortable in its skin for a second bite at the cherry.
