For this proposal, I will be examining the main villain of Level 16. This film has definitely stuck with me and contains some pretty nasty villains.
What's the Work?
Level 16 is a 2018 thriller/sci-fi film where girls are raised in a prison-like boarding school, where they are taught to be obedient and to embody the "feminine virtues." On Level 16, they are told that they will be adopted out to families. They soon learn the dark truth behind their imprisonment and that they are actually raised to be harvested for their skin.
Who is He? What Has He Done?
Dr. William Miro is the doctor running the Vestalis Academy, which is a facial rejuvenation clinic where girls are raised and harvested for their skin. Dr. Miro himself is the one who performs the surgeries where the girls are skinned and their skin his grafted onto the clinic's wealthy clients. He oversees the clinic while Miss Brixil supervises the girls. According to Dr. Miro the parents of the girls had sold them as babies. It is not until the girls reach Level 16 that he personally meets them, as previously, they had only heard his voice over a speaker. During their whole time at Vestalis, the girls are lied to and told that they will be adopted when they are older. If any girl breaks the smallest rule, he will have them punished. He is shown to be an incredibly manipulative gaslighter and a misogynist, who forces the girls he holds prisoner to embody the "feminine virtues". In Level 10, two of the girls, Vivien and Sophia, who are good friends at the time, are waiting in line to brush their teeth. However, when Sophia drops something and is unable to get it due to her poor eyesight, Vivien steps out of line to get it for her, but misses her turn. Because of this, Vivien is taken to the basement by the guards to be punished. The punishment hardens her, leaving her with trauma afterwards and with the belief she is now "unclean".
Years later, in Level 16, the girls' final year at the academy, they are falsely told this is the year they will graduate and be adopted. All of this time, Dr. Miro has been keeping them forcibly medicated by giving them pills to keep them subservient; however, Sophia had stopped taking her pills and realized the sinister nature of the Vestalis Academy. Sophia convinces Vivien to stop taking her medication as well, allowing her to think for herself. When Dr. Miro meets Vivien for the first time during a checkup, he initially acts friendly as part of his facade, as he views Vivien as his most valuable product. When she finds out that he is the one who gave the girls a "moving picture night", where they are allowed to watch movies, she requests to watch a different movie than usual, wanting to see one starring Vivien Leigh, whom she was named after. In response, Dr. Miro calls her a "selfish girl", but still gives in to her demand as part of his manipulation. During Vivien's next appointment with him, she expresses admiration towards Vivien Leigh's strength, which Miro does not like. When Vivien expresses irritation, Miro becomes angry and calls her out for acting "unclean", and questions whether or not she has been taking her medication. Because of this, he forcibly gives her an injection that makes her sick, wanting to keep her in line.
When Miss Brixil becomes aware that one of the guards, Alex, has been molesting the girls while asleep, she orders that he be supervised and not left alone with the girls. Brixil and Miro have a private discussion, and Miro tells her that their benefactors want them to restock, which Miro is okay with, stating how the floors are empty. He tells Brixil that with his advancements, they can start with twelve-year-olds or older. Brixil doesn't want to continue the project, but Miro claims that their benefactors are dangerous and there is nothing he can do, yet he is shown to be perfectly willing to continue the project and never once displays an ounce of remorse. He is shown to care only about his own well-being, the money being made, and the operation's success.
At night, when Alex attempts to molest one of the girls, Sophia attacks him and attempts to choke him. He ends up overpowering her and attempts to sexually assault her, but Sophia knocks him out unconscious and steals his key card, which she hides for Vivien to find before she is caught. Dr. Miro has Sophia taken down to the basement to be punished, and he and Brixil bring the girls together in an attempt to find out where the missing key card is. Despite Sophia having hidden it and never having told any of the other girls, Miro and Brixil believe one of them is hiding it. Brixil tries to get them to confess, but Miro takes over and angrily shouts at the girls and continues to gaslight them, saying, "Never have I witnessed such coarse and unfeminine behavior, such ingratitude. We gave you a full life, and this is how you repay us?! We treated you like family! Well, perhaps the time for that is over." He orders Rita to be taken to the basement and punished despite her innocence and pleas. Miro tells the girls that she will be punished, and each following day, another girl will be punished, too, until the stolen item is returned, before leaving. As punishment, he murders Rita and skins her.
Vivien finds the hidden key card and uses it to unscrew the door from its hinges to escape. She then goes downstairs and frees Sophia, who is visibly traumatized from whatever had been done to her. Down there, they discover Rita's flayed corpse. After they go back upstairs, Vivien subdues Miss Brixil, and she and Sophia take her hostage. They gather the other girls and show them a video of Dr. Miro discussing the facial rejuvenation program that he has been running all of this time. The girls then discover that Miss Brixil is a sponser who had gotten a face transplant of her own from Dr. Miro, showing just how long he has been murdering and skinning girls for. After locking Miss Brixil away in a cell, the girls flee, but Alex attacks Vivien and Sophia. He stabs Sophia, badly injuring her and almost killing her, but together, she and Vivien manage to shove him over the ledge to his death. The other girls flee, and together, Vivien and Sophia barricade themselves in a storage shed. Dr. Miro finds them and puts on his fake friendly facade, gently talking to Vivien and trying to convince her to come out, because of how important her face is for his operation. He says how he saved them from poverty and that their parents were more than happy to sell them, claiming he built a home for them and gives them food and safety, but Vivien sees through all of his lies. When Vivien asks how much her face is worth, Miro admits that it is worth sixteen years of his life. In response, Vivien cuts up her own face as Dr. Miro screams and tries to stop her, destroying her value to him. Two guards then take a depressed and defeated Miro away to meet with his boss, and he is shot off-screen for his failure. His death is not played for an ounce of sympathy is completely deserved for how much of a monster he was.
Mitigating Factors
While he displayed some affection towards Miss Brixil whom he appears to be in a romantic relationship, I do not believe he has any genuine care for her in the slightest. While he did give her a new face, this was primarily for himself to be more attracted to her and use her as a sponsor. While he shows affection towards her in one scene and initially softly tries to reassure her that they can start with twelve-year-olds for the future of their project instead of young children, this was done to keep her on his side and have her continue to comply. When she expresses her desire for the project to end as planned, he becomes aggressive and shouts at her, claiming there is nothing he can do due to how dangerous their benefactor is, and yet, he doesn't show any remorse. He also insults her by claiming that the classes she insisted on teaching the girls were a waste of time. At the end, when the girls attack Miss Brixil and lock her up, Dr. Miro goes looking for Vivien and never shows any concern for where Miss Brixil is.
While Miss Brixil was not okay with the girls being molested by Alex, this was mainly because she did not want her product to be damaged, and this does not indicate that she or Miro have any genuine standards. While Brixil (who is a massive hypocrite) states that physical punishment is never her first choice, Miro is more than happy to torture and murder the girls.
Dr. Miro is the textbook definition of faux affably evil. Any moments of affability are purely manipulative and pragmatic. While he does initially seem to have a pet-the-dog moment where he gives the girls a movie day and complies with Vivien's request to show a Vivien Leigh film, this is all just manipulation, as Vivien was his prized product, and given the fact that he is simply raising them to be killed and mutilated so that he can harvest their skin. Also, when Vivien states how she admires how strong Vivien Leigh was after seeing the film, Dr. Miro becomes angry and scolds her due to wanting to keep her subservient when he accuses her of acting unclean, showing his true colors. He is very misogynistic and becomes aggressive whenever the girls act in a way he deems "unfeminine", such as when they display curiosity or anger, and he continuously gaslights the girls. Up until the end, he tries to manipulate Vivien and Sophia by claiming he wants to help them and saying how he saved them from poverty, telling them how their parents sold them, and they never had any future.
While his boss is the one making him continue the project, this does not make him tragic or sympathetic in the slightest. He had gladly started and run this whole twisted operation to begin with and has been running the clinic's operations for over a decade. He never shows any remorse in the slightest for anything he has done. Brixil is the one who wants the project to end, rather than Miro, who, until the end, still desperately wants to take Vivien's skin and tries to manipulate her to come to him.
Heinous Standard
The heinous standard is no problem for Miro, as he is the one who kicked off this whole horrible project. Someone else protects the project and gives Miro customers, but he is never shown onscreen, and it is only known that he is Alex's uncle and that both Miro and Birxil are afraid of him. Miss Brixil is the one who supervises the girls and gives them orders, but Miro is shown to be the one truly in control of the girls at the academy. Miro and his skills are completely essential to the operation, as without him, this would not be able to happen. Alex is a particularly nasty character, who molests the girls while they are asleep and nearly kills Sophia, but given that Dr. Miro is the one who started the project, operates the clinic, and performs the surgeries to remove the skin of the girls and graft them onto his wealthy clients, he passes very easily.
Verdict
Yes to this scumbag. He is a manipulative, cruel, misogynistic, and immoral gaslighter who raises girls in an abusive prison of a school, punishes them for disobedience, and murders and skins them when they come of age to sell their skin to his clients.