CONTROL FREAK a Hulu Original

Control Freak is the latest Hulu original horror movie. In it, Valerie (Kelly Marie Tran) is a motivational speaker who thrives when she's in full control of a situation. Right away we learn that she seems to itch and scratch at the back of her head as an unhealthy coping mechanism when it comes to stress, nerves, and/or anxiety.

She's about to embark on a worldwide tour when she learns there's a hiccup with the Asian leg of the tour. China refuses to let her into the country unless she is able to provide them with her birth certificate. While this might not be a problem for some people, it sure is for Val as she has no idea where her birth certificate might even be. While meditating, she has a vision of ants crawling across her leg and her living room floor before quickly shaking it off and thinking nothing of it.

After thinking on it for a bit, Val calls up her Aunt who runs a nail salon. While having her nails done, Val casually asks about the location of some old boxes from her old home. Her Aunt tells her where the boxes are and Val rushes to sort through them. There's one problem though, the box most likely to hold Val's birth certificate isn't there but is with her father instead.

As the tour gets closer, Val's itching and scratching intensifies. In fact, in one scene she resorts to using a metal file to scratch her head, resulting in a pretty gnarly head wound. Via telephone, her doctor hints that her itching and scratching might be a psychological issue "given the family history". At this point in the story, we know Val's mother is dead but we don't know the how and why. The doctor's comments seem to imply that her mother suffered from psychological issues.

Determined to not reschedule any of her tour, Val decides to visit her father, who is now a monk, and ask for the missing box. While visiting, she asks about a lone painting that he has hanging up. He tells her that it's of the Sanshi and it's there to serve as a reminder. He further explains that Sanshi translates to "hungry ghost" or "hungry parasite" and that in times of tragedy, the Sanshi can take over a human host and posion them with insatiable urges.

While listening to her father. Val again has a vision of ants crawling. This time the vision rattles her more than she could have expected. Seeing this, her father offers to go and grab a drink of water for her. As he fetches a drink for her, Val decides to snoop around and finds a key to a storage unit. She decides to pocket the key and go check it out.

Inside the unit there are boxes upon boxes lining shelving as well as a filing cabinet with one drawer padlocked shut. In searching through the other drawers, Val is able to find her birth certificate.

Well, that's one problem solved. But what about the incessant scratching and the bizarre visions of ants? Also, she seems rather reluctant to talk about her mom, what exactly happened there?

There is some decent body horror on display here. No, director Shal Ngo is not about to be lumped in with the Cronenberg clan, but it serves it's purpose well enough. The same can be said for the CGI usage as well, nothing earth shattering but perfectly serviceable.

If you're like me, you learned while watching Control Freak that hearing someone continuously scratch their head is the equivalent to nails on a chalkboard. That led to a fair bit of wincing on my part any time that Val would just go to town on her head.

Kelly Marie Tran is great here as Val. Honestly, her performance did more to keep me engaged than the actual story itself.

Speaking of the story, it turns out that this is based on a short film. Ultimately, it would have been better off staying that way. The whole "is it real or just in her head" gimmick wears thin and we get a lot of filler that is solely there to help pad out the runtime.

Yes, there are parts of this that are enjoyable. However, while I enjoy the overall premise and think that, if done correctly, this could work as a feature, I can't say that I'd recommend rushing to check out this Hulu original.

🍿 SCORE = 58 / 100