EXAM: One Job, Eight Candidate
Imagine the biggest exams of your life and you get there and the paper is blank, with little to no instructions as to what you are supposed to do (doesn't that sound like a bad nightmare). Hi pretties, it's Abeegail and welcome to my blog and today I've brought an engaging movie that would question your riddle solving abilities.
Yes, a blank sheet of paper, that's the premise of the whole movie. Yeah sounds boring, a blank sheet of paper but if you add eight candidates, who are willing to do anything to get the job of the century, and eighty minutes, then you'll be amazed how much a blank sheet of paper can do.
Well, your nightmare already exists in the cinematic world. This is Exam, a (2009) psychological thriller directed by Stuart Hazeldine. It follows eight candidates who are locked in a windowless examination room as the final act of their interview and are given three strict rules to follow. One, don't damage your papers. Two, don't leave the room. Three, don't speak to the invigilator or the armed guard. Breaking anyone the rules means immediate disqualification. Sounds simple right, except the papers are blank and they have just 80 minutes to figure it out but what they don't know is that this 80 minutes might be the most interesting or crazy part of their life because what follows is a high stakes game of manipulation, deduction and psychological warfare.
To tell you, this is the most psychological thriller that has ever thrillered because not only does it gets you thinking deeply about human psychology but also present the evil nature of man in such a deep philosophical way. At the beginning, the candidates are presented as intelligent, competent, and capable people, you know, people that might seem like the one percenters and not just some randos they put in an exam room. But slowly and surely their facade drops as the real person underneath comes out as their desire to win coupled with the suffocating air of competition. Aside from the movie, even in the real world, when faced with competition as such, we tend to see the evil side of humans, rubbing someone's name in the mud, digging dirt on someone and using it against them, if it means bringing you close to your goals. (Is that being ambitious or being a b**th)
And yes this movie didn't deter from that, persuasion, manipulation, intimidation, became the central skill because everyone was suspicious of each other and would do anything to get their goal because this is what happens when you put eight people in an exam room and probe them. That's what competition does, the other candidates stop being people with their own ambitions and become obstacles. The movie also reveals an interesting topic of human nature, " are we good because we believe in doing good or is it because we haven't been faced with a situation where being good is difficult. This is an interesting thought because It's easy to have principles when nothing is threatening them. What happens when helping another person might cost you an opportunity? Would you still go through with it. As the pressure increases, some candidates become increasingly willing to manipulate, intimidate, and sacrifice others to improve their own chances.
This tells us something interesting about human behavior because we are so quick to say, I'm not selfish, I'm just doing what I have to. I'm not manipulative, just strategic. I'm not cruel because everyone is doing it too and we try to convince ourselves that our circumstances gave us no choice, that it's either them or me and I think that's interesting.
What loved the most about this movie is how they didn't show all of their hands, they let the audience in on it, in on the guessing, wondering and speculating. It let us in on the mystery. I was just wondering what the exam was, I went along with every idea, I was even wondering what I would do if I was in that room. (why would I?) At the end of the day I loved the central idea, a very simple premise but I loved the spin on it and how it took a psychological turn. What I didn't love so much was the end, it was kinda anticlimactic. After all the pressure and build up, you might have expected the riddle to be something big but it wasn't, so it was a bust for me.
In the end, Exam is not just about a job interview, neither is it a measure of intelligence or who is more deserving of the job, it's one that show how much you can get when you are not blinded by the desire to win at all cost. The movie cut across interesting themes like morality, competition, pressure and human behavior. It also explores how much the absence of certainty affect our decision making.
If you enjoy psychological thrillers that make you question the characters, question the situation, and occasionally question your own ability to figure out what's happening, like me, then this is totally for you.
It's Still Abeegail 💗✨
Just questioning my intelligence
The first image is sourced, the rest are screenshot from the movie.
Thank you for Reading ☺️✨