Control Freak
By Sioph W. Leal
Control Freak is a follow up feature length movie from writer/direction Shal Ngo, centring around Val (Kelly Marie Tran), a motivational speaker who is on the verge of starting her tour, but is plagued by an uncontrollable itch on her head. Slowly, this itch grows into something else entirely as Val’s life spirals out of control as she discovers more about her family’s past. As Val delves deeper into her past, she must confront the issues of her Buddhist father Sang (Toan Le) and how this can destroy all she has built with her husband Robbie (Miles Robbins).
When we are first introduced to Val, there is a promise of an interesting dynamic between the motivational speaker self, to the real Val, the one seemingly riddled with anxiety. Val tells others how self-doubt is a parasite within the first ten minutes, but unfortunately that is where the clear analogy ends. As Control Freak progresses, the narrative around Val struggles to find any true desire or drive to help the story along. She surrounds herself with those she works with but there is no depth to the relationships. When her family life, both past and present, is explored, it all feels very surface level. We know nothing about her life, about her motivations only that her driving force is getting her birth certificate so she can go on tour. Given how in the last 50 minutes of the movie, the narrative shifts to a generational curse, it might have been stronger if her family’s past were more of her motivation, at least people could resonate with that.
Character depth and development isn’t the only issue from Control Freak. Throughout the movie, it’s clear that Shal Ngo is trying incredibly hard to build the suspense and tension. With the constant cutaways and the voiceovers from Val’s motivational speeches that lose relevance halfway through the movie, it’s hard to connect with the horror aspect of Control Freak. Between that and jump scares in quick successions and a distracting sound design, it’s hard to understand what genre of horror Ngo wanted to create.
The origins of this parasitic demon are also one of the most perplexing aspects of Control Freak. One part of the movie has it as a physical manifestation of Val’s anxiety, then it’s something her mother was infected with, but actually it’s revealed that Val’s father summoned it during war and famine and somehow, without any clear explanation, it infected Val from her conception. Control Freak then sets it up to be a slightly more interesting dynamic, with Val and her father pitted against each other, only for this plot to fizzle out as quickly as it appeared. By not having the parasitic demon as its own character, or with any defining screen time until the very last moments of the movie, really hindered the threat element. We are to be scared of this possession, but anytime Val truly suffers at its hand, it was all just a dream.
Control Freak is a frustrating mix of underdeveloped ideas, extended run time that could cut thirty minutes and a mix of missed potential. There are times where Control Freak could have been cohesive and a decent horror, had it been more consistent in its commitment to the horror elements.It’s described as a psychological thriller that promises to use Val’s own anxiety as a physical manifestation, but instead it tries to borrow aspects from slasher and monster horror genres. All of this created a convoluted mix that feels like there are multiple stories going on with no real connection.