The Thinning (2016)

The Thinning takes a deliciously nasty dystopian idea—your future decided by a single high-school test—and turns it into a brisk, pressure-cooker thriller where every scantron feels like a loaded weapon. Director Michael J. Gallagher keeps the vibe lean and tense, mixing teen drama with a creeping sense that the system isn’t just unfair, it’s engineered, and watching Peyton List and Logan Paul push back against that machine gives the movie its punch. It’s not a gore fest (the violence is mostly bloodless), but the peril is constant, with a slick, paranoid momentum that makes you want to keep watching just to see how far the lie goes. If you like high-concept, YA-flavored dystopias with conspiratorial bite and a fast pace, this one is an easy, addictive sit—even if the performances and style won’t convert viewers who need prestige-level nuance.

The Thinning wants to be a slick, YA-flavored dystopian thriller about teens trapped in a brutal system, with a test-day conspiracy that’s meant to feel urgent and enraging. The problem is it plays like a very familiar “deadly competition” template with thin character work and not much curiosity about its own big ideas, so the tension often feels manufactured instead of earned. Performances are serviceable and the premise is easy to hook into, plus the violence is relatively bloodless if you’re sensitive to gore, but don’t expect sharp world-building or a story that digs deeper than the setup. If you’re mainly here for a quick, low-stakes dystopian watch and can tolerate some clunky execution, it might pass the time; if you want something smart, fresh, or emotionally gripping, this will likely disappoint.