I understand there is a sequel made for this film; I do not know how wise that is because there will not be the same suspense element that this one had. This film is both tragic and scary. It is tragic because there is a chance that part of the strategy of this film may be initiated by the government at some point in the future. We already have tremendous pressure on our young adults with standardized testing like the SAT, GMAT and several other thinning devices. It is not hard to imagine more stringent ones down the line. However, when it comes to population control; it probably would not start with high school students; it would start with prisons. All the prisons in a country could easily be eliminated and turned into slave labor, like the people in this film. But that entire population is less than 1% of the population. We would have to come up with 4.5% from other sources. Hospitals could provide some. Old age homes could add to the number, and eliminating politicians could make up the rest of the difference. Most likely, however, if there were a real MATH elimination of the world's students, China would hardly be affected at all, and the US would probably lose over 9% of their high school students; but that wont happen anytime soon. Good luck with that idea.

"Warning, lock down is now in progress. 30 seconds 'til lock down. Testing to begin in 15 minutes." If you want a perfect example to show how to transform a rather original movie into a typical teenage story that can be followed by an infinite number of sequels, "The Thinning" is the right movie for that. Admittedly, at the first moment I found the basic idea masterful. A sort of "The Purge" on an academic level. It turns out that the natural resources of planet Earth are no longer sufficiently present and livable space is limited because the oceans have appropriated land (due to the global warming I presume). The world decided to take drastic measures. In the U.S. they found the ideal solution. And it's not what you'd think it'll be. Nope, no birth control or the elimination of older folks who are terminally ill. The bright idea is that school-age youngsters need to undergo an ultimate final exam. You had to endure panic anxiety when it was the period of exams again at school? Well, this would be your worst nightmare in that case. You don't pass this exam, there's not even a possibility for a resit. This way they attempt to reduce the population by 5% annually. So far the ingenious part of the film. I honestly admit that the images made me feel slightly uncomfortable. Especially when I saw those innocent little children taking their first "Thinning" exam and I suddenly started realizing that some of them won't have a bright future. The rest is as predictable as it can get and at times it's really terribly ridiculous and unrealistic. I could live with once again that idyllic image of a superior America and that they are using this process so that a more intelligent population would arise. As a result the U.S. would become the best country in the world once again. Stunning. They'll achieve this by eliminating all the dumb kids. A revolutionary idea that'll disgust you at first, but at the same time it's so fascinating that your curiosity flares up again and you'll keep looking intensely. But then ridiculous events start to rule. When someone uses camera images to figure out a password or someone tries to pick up a tiny pin lying on the floor 3 meters far with a magnetized iron wire, I start to sigh again. Add to this the obligatory romantic slant with a momentary mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and I start groaning even more. Anyway, I was wondering why the unfortunate students who didn't pass, needed to be disinfected once more. Admittedly, afterwards it became clear. What I didn't expect was the fact it was all so predictable. Halfway through I could enumerate roughly what was about to happen and how it would end. Only I didn't foresee the ultimate ending. And this ending irritated me the most. An open end in such a way that a follow-up appears to be self-evident. And everybody knows what I think of sequels. If you think about it more deeply, this film actually is a little reflection of our society at present time. On a political level strings are pulled, so a situation turns out better for those that rule. Wealthy and influential families sometimes have an advantage. Obtaining a scholarship because someone excels in sports, and thus it's not necessary to have a high I.Q., is something that exists in the U.S. nowadays. And the ordinary students are as always the victim (even though they have the correct number of brain cells). All in all a shocking subject with some acceptable acting, even though it's a low-budget film. Had they made a different ending, my opinion about it would probably be milder. Now they have more or less a limp commercial excuse to come up with some more sequels.

I just want to say one thing about this movie. It was an alright movie but it was hyped up too much. This movie is set in the future where the Earth is lacking natural resources to keep the existing population so in the United States or maybe just Texas (I still don't know) students take a test. If they pass they live and if they fail they are "killed". At the end of the movie they show Logan Paul wake up on an elevator where he sees Lia Johnson alive and working on some sort of assembly line. This is the part I don't understand. If the Earth were lacking natural resources and we wanted to use less resources then why would you keep the failed students alive? They would be using the same resources as if they were "alive". After seeing this at the end are realizing that they aren't actually being killed I was really confused because then the system is pointless.