Hulu and horror are practically synonymous, especially after an excellent two-season run of Into the Dark that brought feature-length genre titles to life in often splendid fashion. Just to name a few, some of Hulu’s horror originals include Appendage, Prey, Little Monsters, and my personal favorite, their Hellraiser reboot. Control Freak arrives with a certain expectation that it should deliver, at the very least, a chilling dose of body horror fueled by an uncontrollable itch. Instead, this Kelly Marie Tran vehicle feels like regurgitated leftovers or, as the kids say, reheated nachos. Frustratingly repetitive and ridiculously dull, Control Freak presents an obvious metaphor without the necessary gravitas to create a film of substance.
Meet Val (Tran, Star Wars, Raya and the Last Dragon), a motivational self-help speaker on the verge of greatness. With her first-ever tour approaching and talk of starting a family with her cutesy supportive boyfriend, Robbie (Miles Robbins, Halloween 2018, Daniel Isn’t Real), Val seems to have it all. Val’s focus on work starts the unraveling of her sanity from the very first scene. A recurring motif of Val scratching her head over and over again plagues almost every minute of the runtime. Whether it be the sound of scratching or the actual image, Control Freak underlines its body horror aspect over and over again to the point of annoyance. Alongside the obsessive deep itching comes a recurring image of crawling ants everywhere, further symbolizing the feeling of some parasite that eats away at Val, preventing her from reaching her full potential.
Despite a setup early on that shows some promise, writer/director Shal Ngo plays his hand far too early. Ideas of generational trauma and demons that imply a family curse are drowned out by the obnoxious attempts at horror. We get glimpses of whatever gnarly creature Val thinks she is seeing, but something always holds back from pushing the envelope far enough. The irony of a motivational speaker being trapped by the very same philosophy she teaches could be a clever bit of writing if any of it had been developed enough to matter. Look no further than Smile 2 for a similar premise executed far better, where a struggling pop star gets consumed by demons of her own. Oscar-nominee The Substance also tackled similar themes in a much more visually-driven manner. Even the body mutilations fail to impress, presenting Val’s journey as a flimsy character study that could have been prevented.
To add further fuel to the fire, the ending may be perhaps the most egregious. In an attempt to close up the story with a bow, one character action seems beyond silly and unbelievable. The finale, simply put, is such a lazy cop-out. Both Robbins and Tran do a decent job with what they are given. Yet, the film surrounding them constantly wastes the talents of both skilled actors. Tran in particular deserves a story that does not revel in her misery, or force her to finger her own skull-hole. Unintentionally funny, it eventually felt as if the creators had crafted a bizarre parody of a character study instead of an actual effective psychological thriller. An interesting concept metastasizes into an unintentionally comical mess. An ultimately meaningless exercise in repetition, Control Freak aims to be profound but instead just manages to be an egregious genre misfire.
Control Freak scratches that horror itch, exclusively tearing open for Hulu subscribers on Thursday, March 13th.
