Unsane (2018)

Rating: 8.5/10
Genre: Psychological/Thriller
Related Titles: Slenderman, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Girl Interrupted 
By Leanne Harragan

In an attempt to escape her stalker Sawyer Valentini moves from Boston to Pennsylvania. While meeting with a therapist, she volunteers for a 24-hour commitment to the Highland Creek Behavioural Centre. Her 24-hours soon becomes more permanent and seemingly her mental health deteriorates. Valentini will do what it takes to stay alive and earn her freedom once more.

In my opinion, the trailer for this film shows something completely different from what the film actually is. I was pleasantly surprised watching this because there were a few plot points that I can honestly say that I didn't see coming. The real scary thing about this film was that it was unnervingly real, you hear of horrible stories of horrible things happening in the world and this story is something that could be all too real. 

The start of the film opens with Sawyer Valentini (Claire Foy) a seemingly normal women who has recently moved across state for a 'new start.' Little does the audience know that she is haunted by her stalker. After meeting with a new therapist, things take a turn for the weird and she finds her self trapped in a Behavioural Centre. 

The film doesn't spend long setting up main character Valentini we are given a quick crash course in her life: new city, new job and new friends are shown within five minutes for a film like this it works in that you don't need the long introduction because so much more is revealed along the way. 

I personally feel that the best thing about this thriller film was that it was scary in a subtle way. The unnerving endless maze of winding corridors, the intense score that weaved in and out of the film, the doubts surrounding the main characters viewpoint - was she really seeing her stalker in the centre or was her imagination playing tricks on her? There was no reliance on the commonly overused jump scares and this made it much more haunting. 

One of the cool things about this film was that it was shot entirely on the iPhone 7 and I'll admit that I was very sceptical about this because I felt that it wouldn't look slick enough. I have been proven wrong in someways, while it didn't look incredible it worked well enough and provided some interesting angles and shots. My main issue with it being filmed on a phone was that for the most part the film is set in a dingy, dark hospital ward and some of the characters facial details and parts of the room were completely lost to darkness.

Finally, the acting was outstanding, Claire Foy as main character Sawyer did an amazing job, her ability was demonstrated even more as the film progressed. Similarly Juno Temple played a smaller role as Violet, another patient in the ward was a standout for me, there is a scene toward the end of the film (no spoilers) but it was quite moving and Temple was prominent in making this scene work so well. Last but not least Joshua Leonard was positively haunting.

While it is not quite the film that trailer suggests it ties a number of common plot themes together to make a subtlety scary film that I would definitely recommend.