Lesson of the Evil

Lesson of the Evil (悪の教典, 2012) is a Japanese horror thriller directed by Takashi Miike — watch it online on iFILM. English teacher Seiji Hasumi is the most popular figure at his private high school: charming, attentive, always available. None of it is real.

Hasumi is a psychopath operating behind a flawlessly maintained persona. When school problems — bullying rings, blackmail, students who know too much — start to threaten his position, he responds with the kind of methodical planning that reveals how long this has been coming. Hideaki Ito plays him without a single visible crack; the smile stays, the voice stays even. The cast also includes Takayuki Yamada, Fumi Nikaido, and Shota Sometani. The film is based on Ysuke Kinae's bestselling novel.

Miike frames it as a portrait of evil that needs no backstory to explain itself — and that's exactly what makes it unsettling. Stream Lesson of the Evil (2012) online on iFILM.