Imagine your grandmother, alone in her comfortable suburban home. She hears a knock on her door, and she shuffles silently to open it. At first she is hesitant to let the two girls standing in her doorway into the house, but then she thinks of you and her other grandchildren. Wouldn’t she want someone to be nice to them if they ever needed help?

The grandmother in Rafael Zalinsky’s Fun doesn’t know what we do when she lets the girls into her house; she hasn’t seen her own blood splattered all over her kitchen like we have in the movie’s opening credits. She doesn’t know that the girl named Bonnie (Alicia Witt) isn’t really sick, that she’s just looking for something fun to do, something she’s never done before. After all, if the old woman knew, she would never have let Bonnie and Hillary (Renée Humphrey) into her house. . . .

Fun is an extremely disturbing movie. From the opening scenes, you know exactly what is going to happen. The movie is torturously slow, moving backwards in time through flashbacks until it finally reaches its climax: the gruesome murder of an innocent old woman. “Why did they do it?” everyone wonders. John (William Moses), a journalist, wonders in hope of filling the pages of his tabloid newspaper. Jane (Leslie Hope), the girls’ counselor, wonders in hope of saving the girls before their lives are ruined. No one believes that the girls could possibly have murdered someone for fun. Neither can we.

Humphrey (left) and Witt (right) won a special jury recognition for acting at the Sundance Film Festival.

Fun is a convincing enough motive for the two fifteen-year-old girls, but something much more complex drives them. Behind her dark makeup and carefree attitude, Hillary hides a past of sexual abuse and guilt for actions that were not her fault. Bonnie, on the other hand, tries to push her own problems aside, creating wild stories and spinning and moving in constant agitation.

When the two girls meet along a road, they immediately recognize a similarity between their characters that forms a bond between them. Their pasts and personalities are very different, but they share an anger and an energy that bring them together. Initially, they help one another, giving each other someone to confide in. For the first time in their lives, they feel genuinely accepted.

Later the same day, it is their mutual acceptance that finally drives them to violence. Bonnie’s frenetic behavior and Hillary’s curiosity about trying something new combine to make a mounting level of excitement between the two girls.

“Do you think they’re lesbians?” John asks, as if searching for a juicy tidbit for his article.

“Does it matter?” responds Jane.

Together, Bonnie and Hillary unlock a passion deep within them, not necessarily a sexual energy, but instead, a reserve of frustrated anger that they have kept hidden from the world. Before the killing, we see their energy explode as they move from a store, to an arcade, to a residential neighborhood, playing increasingly cruel pranks along the way. It is as if the girls have distanced themselves from the world. They are so absorbed in themselves that the girls do not consider the effects of their actions. Realizing that they had only known each other for less than a day, we see how quickly their inner bitterness surfaced.

The movie is split between the grainy, black-and-white world of the present and frequent full-color glimpses into the past. In prison, the girls are kept apart despite their painful pleas to see one another. At first the treatment seems cruel, but as the flashbacks progress, we understand that together the girls brought out feelings that must be suppressed if they ever hope to return to their lives.

Zelinsky’s message is unclear at the end of the movie. What is it that finally makes the present fade back into color? He never makes it entirely clear whether he is using the story for its shock value or because it should teach some sort of lesson. Is the jerky cinematography intentionally as gut-wrenching as the murder itself?

Witt and Humphrey are outstanding as the two teenagers. They are so convincing at times that I wondered whether they were actually as angry as the characters they played. Both girls received a special jury award for their acting at the Sundance Film Festival, a recognition they fully deserve. Few of Hollywood’s most recognized actresses could have performed so well. Witt’s ability to portray unrestrained energy outdoes Drew Barrymore’s best performances, and Humphrey is excellent at portraying Hillary as introspective and curious. Without a doubt, few actresses could have filled the roles so perfectly.

The movie’s most captivating quality is its use of actors who come across as ordinary people. Without famous names and pre-established reputations on the line, Fun is as a frighteningly real portrayal of America’s youth, a shunned and ignored group of adolescents who are capable of anything if you push the right buttons. Hillary and Bonnie sometimes seem uncomfortably similar to people we know.

Though Fun has been criticized for glamorizing senseless murder, it is not the type of movie that makes you want to run out and kill innocent people. Instead, after seeing Fun, you will probably want to lock your door and never let strangers inside. And you will want to call your grandmother to tell her to lock her doors, too.