Inner Demons Manifested into reality?

Control Freak, which recently premiered on Hulu, is first and foremost a body horror film. But it also includes elements of the demonic possession and psychological horror subgenres. It’s an ambitious movie that does some things very well, but it falls a bit short of its grandest ambitions.

Val Nguyen (Kelly Tran) is a Vietnamese-American motivational speaker. When she’s on stage, she projects confidence and poise, extolling her listeners with generic tough love platitudes about how they can only depend on themselves if they want to improve their lives.

She’s one of those influencers who seem to have it all, but her personal reality is far different. She and her husband are trying to have a kid, but they aren’t having much luck. She has an acrimonious relationship with her father, a former Vietnam War soldier who is now a Buddhist monk.

She blames him for her mother’s long-ago death. And lately she’s been experiencing an inexplicable persistent itch on the top her head. She scratches it again and again, but it keeps coming back. Oh, and she’s having repeated hallucinations of ants swarming her home.

A Shadowy and Enigmatic Monster

As if all that wasn’t enough, Val is having terrifying visions of a menacing tentacled monster that only she can see. She believes that the creature is a sanshi, a parasitic spirit or demon from Asian folklore. Val discovers evidence that her mother was tormented by the same entity. She fears that her future children will also be terrorized by the monster.

Her only chance to defeat it is to confront her past traumas, especially her mother’s death. Control Freak wisely uses practical effects for the creature. A CGI monster would have been distracting and ineffective.

Is the sanshi objectively real, or is does it exist only in Val’s imagination? The monster could be interpretated as a representation of Val’s inner demons and declining mental health, but it also works as a real entity.

Control Freak leaves this question open, which I believe is the right move. It’s a contrast with another movie I recently reviewed, Presence, which features an unnecessarily definitive conclusion.

Kelly Tran delivers a strong, believable performance as Val. Her character isn’t likeable, but she’s not supposed to be. Val is manipulative and dishonest to everyone, even her husband. Her motivational speeches are just vapid pop psychology.

However, she does get wiser as the film progresses. It’s actually refreshing to see a horror movie character get real development.

Control Freak is directed by Shal Ngo, who has mostly directed shorts. Unfortunately, his lack of experience with feature films shows. Control Freak has many repetitive moments. There are far more scenes of Val scratching her head than necessary, and believe me, you’ll get sick of seeing those damn ants crawling everywhere.

Are ants scary? I don’t think so, but apparently Ngo does. Control Freak had the chance to be terrifying, but the repetitiveness hurts the pacing of the film.

Rating

Control Freak benefits from Tran’s performance and fun practical effects, but its messy pacing and repetitiveness keeps it in the good, but not great, category.

Rating from 1 (avoid at all costs) to 10 (masterpiece): 7 

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