“WITHOUT HESITATION THEY BEGAN TO DANCE.” The 2008 movie Exam is basically a cheapened version of William Sleator’s terrific novel House of Stairs.

As the comparison suggests, Exam‘s first half-hour or so highlights the way that contemporary job applications and economic pressures infantilize adults (much as the surrounding pop culture infantilizes people who, in a better world, would already be raising children of their own). The adults in this movie can be treated like the teens in Sleator’s novel because their life-stage is so similar. The pencil-skirt precision with which they present themselves, the marketing ethos which leads them to accept the most reductive nicknames, all make college applicants look like careerist twentysomethings and make thirtysomethings look like children.

Exam is a really bad movie, with tons of overplaying and overwriting. I do think it’s kind of amazing as a cultural document. The parallels with House of Stairs were startling, and the really boringly obvious AIDS references were harsh enough that I choked up a couple of times despite knowing that I was being manipulated. A B-movie, if not a B-minus–every single twist will be guessed well in advance–but this is a window into what job-hunting really feels like, and that makes it painful. I thought the twistiness of the “are we pro- or anti-Big Pharma?” plotline was also surprisingly thoughtful, though I have really intensely low expectations there.

You really should read House of Stairs though. It’s a sad, compromised look at martyrdom and complicity, and its characters are incredibly memorable. Peter and Lola are one of the most memorable and unexpected teams in children’s lit.