What would you do if you had to pack up and leave the place you call home just to escape one person who was single-handedly ruining your life? Someone who wouldn’t take no for an answer and instilled fear in your everyday movements?
In Steven Soderbergh‘s new psychological thriller Unsane, that’s the warped reality for Sawyer Valentini (Claire Foy, The Crown). She has to move to a new town, take on a new job and make new friends just to escape her two year-strong stalker, David Strine (Joshua Leonard, The Blair Witch Project). But because life is a cruel, cruel place, Sawyer’s still seeing him everywhere… or is she?
Brought to us by the same Academy Award-winning mastermind responsible for Contagion and Ocean’s Eleven, Unsane follows the forever blurry line between sanity and insanity from its first second right through to its last.
The flick – which was filmed entirely on an iPhone to reach peak creep production – constantly keeps the audience on their toes and guessing whether or not Sawyer’s mind is in fact playing tricks on her. When she is admitted to a local psychiatric ward against her will, her life is again flipped upside down when one of the ward’s orderlies is her stalker David. Or is it?
Awarded a cool 79% by Rotten Tomatoes, this indie thriller goes from 0 to 100 quicker than you can say “Mom can you pick me up? I’m scared” – all wildly amplified by the invasive, intimate camera angles that continuously make you feel like someone is watching you.
Sawyer’s rapid decline into mental instability means she requires further monitoring in this corrupt system, and that consequently David – whether it’s actually him or not – is able to get closer and closer to her, making her crazier and crazier. Round and round it goes. Obviously we wouldn’t wanna spoil this ripper of a film for you but in short, mates: shit gets damn-well wild.
While I’ve never been stalked (other than an engaged ex-boyfriend watching my Instagram Stories for two months straight – does that count?) the film claws itself into your mind as weirdly relatable. I know what you’re thinking, but hear me out. If you’re weak enough, and enough people convince you that you’re a certain way, you’ll start believing them or start becoming that way by default. You know what they say: when someone can no longer control you, they’ll control how others think of you.
That’s enough to keep anyone up at night.
Catch Unsane in cinemas this April 25th.
