How to Be Really Bad
Devil's daughter comes to Earth; language, bullying.
How to Be Really Bad
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this movie.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that How to Be Really Bad (in German with English subtitles) is a clever comedy that touts the rewards of being good, empathetic, and decent, even when it might at first seem cooler to be mean and exclusionary. The devil's 14-year-old daughter, who longs to leave hell, is given permission to temporarily mingle among humans and tempt them to do evil, but every evil gesture of hers is met with human kindness and forgiveness until evil just can't compete. Girls do sultry dance moves while wearing tight dresses for a show. Teens kiss. Parents offer condoms when they learn their daughter is going on her first date. Some bullying and fighting. Someone's hair is set on fire. Language includes "s--t," "hell," "damn," "p--sy," "piss," "bitch," pr--k," and "crap." Students smoke cigarettes. Parents try to set a good example and model acceptance and encouragement, rather than shutting down their child's choices.
Community Reviews
It just as good as the other movies you put out, killing, drugs, sex and bad words.
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What's the Story?
The devil's daughter, Lilith (Emma Bading), is 14 and tired of hell, where her tutor's curriculum includes how to use the seven deadly sins to divert humans from the path of virtue. She believes she needs no more instruction as she already enjoys "cyberbullying, wreaking havoc, and annoying her dad." Dad (Samuel Finzi) is keeping her away from humans until she's old enough to go out and corrupt them fulltime. But she's insistent he give her a chance to show off her skills now, and somehow he relents, allowing her a week in a small town where, posing as a student needing a place to stay, Lilith must corrupt 14-year-old Greta (Janina Fautz), a girl known to like "singing, reading, and homework" and who is one of the nicest humans to ever live. Greta's hippie-ish parents espouse kindness and acceptance and welcome Lilith warmly. They grow their own award-winning zucchinis and make Greta wear dowdy handknit dresses, which cooler kids at school mock mercilessly. Emma decides that if she makes Greta popular, Greta will automatically become a mean girl. But scheme after scheme to make Greta petty and smug backfires. Greta never gets angry, only sad, and never feels vengeful, only empathetic. Lilith starts feeling bad about being bad. When Lilith pays Greta's crush, the school playboy Carlo (Emilio Sakraya), to woo her and then dump her, Lilith changes her mind and tells him not to dump poor Greta. Is Lilith changing her ways?
Is It Any Good?
After a slow, cliched start, How to Be Really Bad gets interesting. A story about someone with impeccable evil credentials, the movie obstructs her path with people so nice that she can't get an evil thing done. Her every evil move is misinterpreted as good, which cleverly sets the devil's daughter on her own path to inadvertent goodness. Goodness so thoroughly overrides badness that even her dad, the devil himself, is fooled into thinking that evil is winning, which is a tribute to the film's writers, Rochus Hahn, director Marco Petry, and young adult German author Hortense Ullrich.
Nevertheless, a number of logical lapses and faulty premises provide a stumble or two. Lilith's assignment is to corrupt the incorruptible Greta, but mostly she plots to hurt Greta, which isn't the same thing. The script mistakenly equates making people feel bad with turning those people into evildoers. When she pays Carlo to pretend to fall for Greta and then dump her, it's unclear how exactly that would corrupt Greta. But this faulty scheme does end up showcasing Lilith's own decency, when she stops Carlo from breaking up with Greta because she doesn't want to cause her friend pain. Like many films about teens, the leads are played by 20-somethings who look their age. But because the performers are so earnest and attractive, the age mismatch and logical lapses don't impede the movie's overall success.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the difference between corrupting another person and doing mean things to that person. Does the movie distinguish between the two?
This movie depicts being evil as fun. Do you think there's a difference between mischief and evil? If so, what is it?
The movie suggests that the power of goodness, courtesy, and niceness all triumph over the power of evil. Do you think that's true? Can you think of examples?
Movie Details
- In theaters: June 29, 2018
- On DVD or streaming: March 1, 2021
- Cast: Emma Bading, Janina Fautz, Ludwig Simon, Samuel Finzi, Emilio Sakraya
- Director: Marco Petry
- Studio: Netflix
- Genre: Comedy
- Run time: 100 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: February 19, 2023
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