Frightfest 2022: ‘Control’ Review
Stars: Sara Mitch, George Tchortov, Evie Loiselle, Karen LeBlanc | Written by James Mark, Matthew Nayman | Directed by James Mark
Feeling somewhere between classic Canadian sci-fi Cube and the more recent Level 16, Control is a stunning film that plays things very small scale but ultimately ends up being an epic tale of sci-fi horror.
Locked in a mysterious room and commanded by an unknown voice, Eileen must complete several tasks in order to save her daughter’s life. As the tests and the stakes intensify to the point where succeeding seems well nigh impossible, Eileen is forced to discover she has some unexpected skills and kinetic powers. Armed with a new confidence and commanding forces, alone against an unknown army, she plans a daring escape…
Set, for the most part, entirely in a soundproof room, Control is essentially a one-woman show, with Sara Mitch, as test subject Eileen, holding the film together with a superb tour-de-force performance that she’s her character runs the gamut of emotions: from fearful for her life at the beginning to powerful and, as the title suggests, in total control come the films conclusion. Along the way she’s provoked by a lone voice, played by Karen LeBlanc, who pushed Eileen to do everything she’s instructed under the fear that Eileen’s daughter Eve (Evie Loiselle) will be killed.
But is everything as it seems? Eileen has only one, partial, memory of her time with her daughter – playing together at the beach. A memory that repeats over and over in Eileen’s mind every time Eve is mentioned. But then Eileen’s husband Roger (George Tchortov), is added to the mix and suddenly appears in the very same memory… Is it real or is it a side-effect of the implant in the back of Eileen’s head? An implant that seeming allows her captors to knock her out after every test.
Speaking of tests, the entire ordeal Eileen goes through is seemingly to unlock her latent telekinetic abilities. Abilities that, it looks like, Eileen does not know she has, however abilities that she soon – after help from Roger and more provoking from the anonymous voice – she soon gains mastery of. So much so that the cube she’s been trapped in can no longer hold her… And that’s when Eileen gains the titular Control!
Directed by James Mark, Control continues themes from his previous film Enhanced, which focused on similarly “super-powered” people and creepy government organisations that were trying to hunt them down. In fact, by Control‘s conclusion, it could be seen as something of a side-story to Enhanced, perhaps part of the same universe – even more so considering that Enhanced‘s George Tchortov has a role here as Eileen’s “husband” Roger…
**** 4/5
Another brilliant slice of Canadian genre cinema, Control screened as part of this year’s Arrow Video London FrightFest and is set for a digital release on September 26th, courtesy of Signature Entertainment.
