An amateurishly inept dystopian dud that still got a sequel fails a life-or-death aptitude test on streaming

It might sound like a fever dream, but Logan Paul really did headline a dystopian sci-fi thriller made exclusively for YouTube that ended up getting a sequel, even if the mere existence of The Thinning may come as a shock to many, never mind the fact second installment New World Order is a thing that was made and released… eventually.

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Arriving way too late too capitalize on the craze kick-started at the turn of the millennium, it wouldn’t be unfair to suggest that audiences had grown more than a little weary about seeing a boy and a girl fall in love in a cold, emotionless futuristic setting where society is split into two distinct camps by a plot-driving MacGuffin, never mind one that you could only watch by giving in and agreeing to fork out the extra cash to make those infuriating YouTube ads disappear.

In this instance, Paul and Peyton List headlined the cast in a world where population control is mandated by a high school aptitude test. If you fail, you die. Naturally, our two star-crossed protagonists end up escaping from their chosen fate to unravel a conspiracy that stretches all the way to the top, but you probably don’t even have to go anywhere near The Thinning to figure out the plot.

While the follow-up was shot in late 2017, it was put on hold for nearly a year due to Paul’s controversies in the Aokigahara forest, before it was ultimately sent out with a whimper. Despite being completely and utterly forgotten by almost everyone, though, The Thinning has mounted a remarkable comeback on streaming.

Per FlixPatrol, the eminently uninteresting sci-fi tale has ended up as one of the 10 most-watched features among iTunes customers in the United States, so don’t be alarmed if the sequel is next to emerge from the ether of irrelevancy.