There's a building toward the inevitable, but it's not boring/predictable. It's more like a presentiment that has you saying, "No, no, no, no" under your breath with each new awful thing.

And while fans of the genre will absolutely appreciate the surreal gloom, for most others Level 16 will come in at a level below an average Twilight Zone episode.

But as it sputters toward its curtain-exposing conclusion, "Level 16" stays disappointingly thin, both as a dark-future cautionary saga and a genre exercise.

The mostly feminist themes explored in Level 16 have been pretty well explored elsewhere, so there's not much new here.