Control Freak
Writer/Director: Shal Ngo
Cast: Kelly Marie Tran, Callie Johnson, Miles Robbins, Kieu Chinh, Zack Gold, Scott Takeda
Control Freak is one of those films with what feels like a thousand ways into its twisted psychological framework. There's trauma horror, ancestry horror, occult horror, psychological horror, an exploration of the masks we wear as people, a hint of dark comedy, and even more that pushes us into spoiler territory if we discuss it too much.
This is, in theory, a good problem to have. If you wield these elements well, you've made a film that lots of people can relate to on a lot of different levels. If the whole thing's off balance, though, all of those ideas start to bounce off each other at unsustainable speeds until you're left with a chaotic jumble held together by a scant few constants. In Control Freak's case, the chaos is certainly there, but it's held (barely) in check by a game and capable Kelly Marie Tran, who reminds us that she's got star power to spare if we just give her the space.
Valerie (Tran) is a successful motivational speaker, the "queen of good habits" whose books and speeches are credited with changing lives around the world. But (surprise surprise) Val's own life is in something of a crisis. On the verge of a new speaking tour, she's having trouble getting it together, particularly when a search for her birth certificate places her ability to travel internationally in serious doubt. Then there's this nagging itch at the back of her head driving her to compulsively scratch while at work, while asleep, until every waking moment is consumed by it.
There are firm psychological horror roots here, even if you do see the "Person with perfect life who tells other people how to live can't get her own shit together" format coming. Writer and director Shal Ngo (The Park) gets a lot of mileage out of the contrast, focusing intensely on the itch in Val's head and the other fixations — like meticulously timing how long she can hold her breath under the surface of her pool — that drive her to distraction, then to anger, then to obsession. All of the expected ingredients are there, from the trappings of her great life to the presence of her supportive husband Robbie (Miles Robbins). Ngo's camera moves with confidence through Val's unraveling daily life, immersing us in an atmosphere of immediate discomfort and dread that works throughout the film.
It's what happens next that starts to send Control Freak into messy territory, and not just because it rapidly becomes clear that the title of the film has very little relationship to the actual story. On a basic, functional level, Val's job is to look for her birth certificate and get ready for her tour. That search ultimately leads her down a path through her family history, which itself reveals a possibly supernatural origin for her own emerging madness — one that's only reachable through accessing memories she'd rather not contend with. This is, again, pretty straightforward supernatural trauma horror territory, but there are simply so many loose ends dangling from it that things start to get tangled.
Why is this only emerging in Val's life right now? What made her become a motivational speaker? Why are good habits so important to her, and why has she spent what the film tells us is the last seven years just … waiting for something? There are glancing answers to some of these questions, but the more the film advances into the mystery of what's itching at Val (literally and psychically), the more we seem to drift away from any real depth of character or story. Like the ants that have infested Val's house to torment her even more (oh yeah, this movie's also got ants), it's a film that meanders, giving us no clear sense of direction or arc.
Yet the palpable, well-executed sense of atmosphere persists, and the film holds together because of that consistent tone and, more importantly, because of Tran's performance. A real-life child of Vietnam War refugees, she clearly pours much of herself and her own emotional excavations into the role of Val, imbuing her with a light that seems to flicker and short out multiple times within the actual script. Even when the film's own power falters, she manages to wring maximum effectiveness out of each scene, elevating the material and asserting her star power along the way. Her work, plus a suitably gruesome final act, is enough to keep the film together … but only just.
So yes, Control Freak is a mess, but it's an often unsettling mess anchored by a good performance and strung through with memorable moments of terror. If you're up for something creepy, it's worth a try, but don't expect the next great chapter in serious, elegant trauma horror to unfold before your eyes.
