A new Netflix horror or thriller movie is always going to get a lot of buzz, and 2018's The Perfection seemed to have an interesting premise. Charlotte Willmore (Allison Williams) meets Lizzie Wells (Logan Browning), a musical prodigy who seems to be taking Charlotte's place in the tough and prestigious world of Bachoff Academy run by Anton (Steven Weber). The movie seems to be going in one direction that is fairly predictable and then it completely shifts, creating a new storyline that doesn't feel as satisfying as it's supposed to.
Although The Perfection has a wild plot twist that changes the entire course of the story, and it's best to go into the film without knowing anything about it, it just doesn't work. There are many other ways that this movie could have told this tale and it would have worked out much better. While the idea of a plot twist is always interesting, The Perfection totally wastes it.
The Perfection starts off innocently, as Lizzie and Charlotte connect, have a fun night, and seem to bond over music, and it's clear that Anton is incredibly creepy and that he and Charlotte have a strange relationship. Audiences find out that Charlotte was Anton's star but she had to drop out of the school so she could help a family member.
So why is Charlotte back? Things take a strange turn when Lizzie and Charlotte travel through China on a bus. It seems like Lizzie is horribly sick as she gets nauseous and has trouble figuring out what's going on. Lizzie thinks that there are bugs coming out of her arm and ends up cutting off her hand. Instead of being scary, this sequence of events is tough to watch as it feels really over-the-top and intense. It feels like if Charlotte was a true villain who wanted to harm Lizzie, this scene would work better.
The big twist that is then revealed to viewers is that Charlotte did this on purpose. She handed Lizzie medication that would cause these visions, and convinced Lizzie to cut off her hand. Why? Because Anton is abusive and Charlotte didn't want Lizzie to be abused as well. Charlotte has been dealing with the pain of what happened to her for a long time now and it doesn't seem like she has shared this with anyone.
While horror movie plot twists can be absolutely brilliant, making fans think carefully about the events that they just watched, The Perfection makes a massive mistake with its plot twist because it doesn't make any sense. Charlotte's actions are so horrible, harsh, and mean-spirited that it seems illogical. If she wanted to warn Lizzie, why not talk to her about what happened to her when she was younger. Lizzie and Charlotte could continue to make music by forming their own group and sticking together, and it seems odd that Charlotte would act like cutting off Lizzie's hand and traumatizing her is the only option. While reporting sexual abuse is never simple and there is a lot of corruption that can happen, especially with a wealthy person like Anton, why don't Charlotte and Lizzie try?
Some horror movies are better the second time as viewers can find something else or see how it all comes together. In the case of The Perfection, the twist falls flat no matter how many times someone watches it. The character of Charlotte also seems to be poorly developed. The image of Charlotte holding up a meat clever is terrifying but that's about the only scary moment in the movie. The film would be more interesting if the abuse was taken out of it and Charlotte really was jealous of Lizzie and this created a cat and mouse kind of thriller. It does seem like this is what the movie is setting up, but the twist changes the tone. It would still be powerful to see Charlotte and Lizzie working together in another way. Instead, the movie feels uncomfortable and strange.
The movie's ending is meant to show that Charlotte and Lizzie have gotten revenge on Anton as he now has no limbs and his mouth and eyes have been closed, and Charlotte and Lizzie each have only one hand and they play the cello together. The movie's conclusion is dark, like the original ending for Get Out, another horror film that Williams starred in.
Although viewers do want to see Anton punished, the scene still doesn't work or feel well-earned thanks to the problematic plot twist. It's hard to know where Charlotte and Lizzie will go from here, and the movie doesn't have anything to say about working through trauma besides hurting someone who inflicted the pain and harm.