Thoroughbreds is when two impassive persons come together to share their emotionless views it’s only a little thing before homicidal tendencies begin to hatch.  This Cory Finley debut film is like no other you have ever set eyes upon. From cold and unemotional discourse, two teenage girls Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Amanda (Olivia Cooke) in this 90-minute movie hatch out a cold plan to murder Lily’s overbearing stepfather after the question was quipped in a conversation rather sweetly. From this dynamic Cory Finley has managed to create a sociopathic and apathetic spin off. Coming from the same wealthy background, the two girls rather grew apart and distant in the course of their early years despite being past friends. The question of morals is kind of like a big question mark throughout the movie because though this is tried to be played by Lily who as the story tells is an emotional roller coaster who feels everything who initially shows restraint at Amanda’s first suggestion to carry out the horrible ordeal. Her counterpart on the other hand is a rather emotionless vampire who feels nothing and even showcased amazing skills like being able to manufacture tears on cue. This produces a dynamic in the course of the movie where the blending of two rather stark and contrasting personas are rather merged together to achieve a common aim. This creates an awesome plot device.

If you chose as to whether to pick sides between the characters decision or rather play the game of morals, your view point if you chose the latter would rather be stifled because the Malevolence of Mark (Paul Sparks), is felt like an omnipresent itch throughout the entire movie. Mark seems to be the dragnet, in his character is the foci where the two different and dynamic personas of both teenagers set the scale. Their response to his rather overbearing nature is a bit extreme, they could have just pulled him a fast one like seen in Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events. The decision to just cold bloodedly murder the uncle is a bit offsetting but then again let’s not forget that we are dealing with two serene looking homicidal sociopaths with unpredictable instability, infact Amanda had previously been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder with ‘schizoid tendencies’, this the perfect sociopath in every sense of the word. Accentuating the whole aura in the run time is the rather quick cut scenes, tone drop dramatic drum rolls, pristine stills and ever-present aura of apathy. The whole movie revolves around the two girls as we are sucked deeper into their psyche. Amanda and Lily’s characters and persona are not really explained by Finley as to why they are the way they are maybe there’s a reason behind that as to it might not match or give a possible to come up with the present narrative. So best is to keep their history buried and just paint a superficial picture that doesn’t seem to require much questioning by the viewer unless you have an inquisitive nature. Also, Mark is another rather obscure figure in the movie, rather a presence we are forcefully sold as ‘bad’ or ‘revered’ or better still, more of a presence. This figure also doesn’t put up much of a resistance as one would have wanted but just only had one moment where he planned to ship Lily off to military school.

Thoroughbreds Trailer

Thoroughbreds is a top-quality movie, hats off for tense suspense which is present from start to finish throughout the movie. Finley did a fine tuning, both with the sound effects and visuals to create this master piece.