‘Freelance’ Review
Stars: Nicole Pastor, Jordan Fraser-Trumble, Stephen Degenaro, Jasper Bagg, Hannah Brooke, John Balazs, Zoran Bravo, Marselles Hei Hei | Written by Mike Gerbino | Directed by John Balazs
“Everyone in Melbourne knows I was cutting porn.”
Who wants to be an editor? From John Balazs comes the tragic and terrifying story of a down-on-her-luck film editor offered a suspicious, yet excellent payday: edit snuff. Will she, won’t she?
Living from client to client, living desperately, and living with three months rent due, Katie’s situation is completely undesirable. By chance a dodgy offer on the web comes through: an edit of amateur footage with a big payday. Basically, it’s snuff. For those unsure: snuff is the filming of a real murder. Initially dismissed as “student films”, Katie takes on the work and gets the job done. More comes her way, as does more money, and more time constraints to complete the edit. As the content becomes more vicious and excessive, Katie begins to question whether it is real…
Freelance does a great job in not being exploitative with snuff. Instead, the reactions of Katie are used to sell the severity of what she is dealing with. A routine series of close-ups of her eyes during the edit process, and the gross feeling of discomfort during the export, establish a sequence of visual terror and surreal tension for the viewer of Freelance.
In addition to the horrors of snuff, Freelance quietly provides a commentary on the lifestyle of surviving on freelance work, and no guaranteed income. From sleeping with a friend to covering food expenses to a $1200 charge for pet surgery. All horrors in their own right.
With such a focus on the editor rather than what they’re editing, a dilemma is established – whilst an interesting character study is present, the transition to full, routine horror, is slightly flat or underwhelming to say the least. A good character study would not be present without a good performance, obviously – Nicole Pastor does an excellent job in portraying the life of this poor editor whose work varies between either porn or snuff. In one potential reading, Freelance can be read as an anti-dark web film, and its dangers of radicalisation.
Ultimately, Freelance is quite the fascinating watch. The transformation of Nicole Pastor’s Katie is a grotesque and concerning spectacle. But for as positive as Freelance is in terms of situation, environment, and character, the film struggles to define an excellent mystery angle in the plot behind the snuff. There comes a point where it feels like Freelance remembered late on that someone had to have sent the snuff. Beyond that, however, Freelance is a remarkable psychological thriller.
***½ 3.5/5
Freelance is now available on digital platforms from Radioactive Pictures in Australia and Gravitas Ventures in North America.
