Level 16

Level 16 is a 2018 Canadian science fiction horror film written and directed by Danishka Esterhazy. It follows a group of girls who live at a "school" which educates them about how to be perfect young women for families that they are told will eventually adopt them. Two girls work together to uncover the truth about their captivity. The plot and overall premise of the film shows many similarities to the 2005 film The Island and Kazuo Ishiguro's 2005 novel Never Let Me Go. Plot In an isolated, windowless boarding school run with military precision, girls live on numbered levels and are taught to follow the "feminine virtues" of obedience and cleanliness and avoid "vices" like anger and curiosity. The girls are told that the school protects them from the toxic outside air and that their lessons prepare them for adoption by members of high society, who will only want the girls if they are "clean". Breaking the rules results in being taken downstairs for punishment, which the girls universally fear. Two best friends, Sophia and Vivien, line up with the other girls on Level 10 to wash their faces in front of a camera in an allotted, regimented time. Vivien steps out of line to help Sophia, who dropped her jar of face cream, and in doing so exceeds her time limit. The guards arrive and Vivien is dragged away for punishment, screaming in terror. Years later, Vivien is moved to Level 16 (the final level) and reunited with Sophia for the first time since Level 10. Sophia warns her not to take the daily vitamins, which are actually powerful sedatives. That night, while pretending to sleep, Vivien and another girl, Olivia, are carried to a lounge. The facility manager, Miss Brixil, presents the sleeping girls to an aging couple, who choose Vivien and make plans to purchase her. Once the girls are returned to the dormitory, Vivien manages to escape into the hall, but finds that the outer door requires key card access. Throughout the night, several other girls are taken to the lounge and subsequently returned. Miss Brixil, talking to an unseen person on the phone, expresses concern about the behavior of a guard, Alex, warning that he should not be allowed around the girls unsupervised.