Stop me if you’ve heard this before: One or more teenagers live in a dystopian society where people are forced to do stuff they don’t like, until he/she/they realise that there’s a bigger conspiracy and work to take the system down. Now on YouTube!
Legendary Pictures has released the first look at its new digital-only film The Thinning, which is coming to YouTube Red on October 12. The movie stars Vine celeb Logan Paul and Disney Channel’s Peyton List as two rebels who stand up against a corrupt totalitarian system in the name of free teens everywhere.
This movie’s dystopia is one where the SATs basically determine if you live or… something else. They don’t specifically say what, but considering the movie is about population control, I’m guessing they die.
The movie’s plot is strikingly similar to the Unwind series by Neal Shusterman, albeit much simpler. Whereas Unwind examines the abortion debate, The Thinning is more about, um, whether you can get into Stanford. It also looks pretty boring and low-budget and considering the trailer doesn’t show any actual dialogue, it might not be very good. You can judge for yourself below.
Given the fact that the final Divergent film has been demoted to a TV movie, it seems like the teen dystopian craze is on its way out. Well, there’s still Maze Runner: Death Cure, but that was moved to 2018 because the star got injured, and who knows what’ll be trending by then. Other than superhero films, but come on, we’re never escaping those as long as we live.