1BR - Fucking Incredible (Full Spoilers!!!)
1BR is everything I want in a horror movie – and this will be an article full of spoilers and talking about the ending SO YOU’VE BEEN WARNED. “You gotta fuckin’ vag up!”
A flick that spends the first half an hour giving you major creep vibes only to flip the script and immediately go hardcore into craziness is my kind of movie, 1BR was written and directed by David Marmor and is currently streaming on Netflix.
Trigger warnings for this movie: Cat death and human torture
Premise:
Sarah has moved to LA for a new start and is looking for an apartment. She’s got herself a temp job working in a law firm, but her true passion is costume design. When she attends an open house she finds a pretty basic apartment but an amazing community in the building itself. She’s overjoyed when she hears that she’s been approved for the apartment, and after sneaking her cat in (it’s a pet free zone), she is quickly greeted and welcomed by the whole building. She meets her cute neighbor, makes a friend at work, and things are looking up.
But at night she keeps waking up to the sound of the pipes banging and clanking and she receives a threatening note about her illegal cat. One night she wakes up to find something much more terrible than a paper threat, and chaos ensues.
What I loved:
IT’S A CULT YOU GUYS!!! THE APARTMENT BUILDING IS A FREAKIN CULT! And it’s handled so incredibly. Right off the bat, Sarah is impressed by how friendly everyone is in the building, but as the viewer you’re instantly suspicious. Ain’t nobody this kind in an apartment building. Trust me, I live in a very kind and welcoming building but if one of my neighbors kept trying to help me carry stuff I’d run inside and lock the door. One of the residents, Lester, tries to give Sarah a book titled; The Power of Community. But still, Sarah doesn’t see it – she’s fresh to LA, out on her own for the first time with a suitcase of trauma.
The cult reveal is insane too. Sarah wakes up one night to her fire alarm going off only to find her cat in the FREAKIN OVEN! And on top of the oven is a note reminding her that pets are not allowed in the building. Immediately she’s jumped by her cute neighbor, Brian and knocked out. She awakens in a room devoid of anything except a camera and a buzzer light. Brian and the leader, Jerry, who also gaslights as the building manager, put her through some insane torture. She’s made to stand at an awkward angle with her hands on the wall, there’s a buzzer light lit up with red, she must stand there until the light turns off. Music plays repeatedly, lights flash, the buzzer goes on and off. At one point they send in Edith, a kind old woman who lives in the building that Sarah bonded with. She tells her, “you gotta stop fighting.”
But before Sarah eventually gives in, there’s a horrific scene where Brian NAILS HER HANDS TO THE WALL TO STOP HER FROM GIVING UP. And if that’s not gross enough – at one-point Sarah hallucinates her father’s voice and attempts to escape, RIPPING HER HANDS OFF THE NAILS. It’s fucking savage.
Sarah does give in to the cult but they don’t stop there because now they need to brainwash her. And this film does such a fucked up, realistic job of cult life. She’s doing lie detector tests being asked about her sexual history and her past. She’s forced to watch her friend Edith be “put down” as she can no longer “contribute to the community anymore.” It’s such a good cult movie, right up there with The Sacrament for a realistic portrayal of real life cults.
Sarah herself is played really well by Nicole Brydon Bloom who seems to be able to emote everything on her face perfectly. She doesn’t have that many lines, considering she’s the lead, but damn if you can’t see everything she’s thinking just looking at her gaze. Incredible! Jerry, Taylor Nichols, is also a standout as the cult leader – he does that amazing thing that cult leaders have of remaining perfectly calm while saying the most terrifying things. Like they’re discussing the weather but actually explaining how you’re going to die.
My favorite though was Lester, Clayton Hoff, what an incredible character. At first he’s our first tip-off that something isn’t quite right with the building. And when Sarah is resisting her torture, Jerry leads Lester into the room to show her his eye that Jerry removed when he resisted. When Sarah is fully accepted into the cult, she’s given to Lester as his new bride. Lester’s previous wife succumbed to cancer which was why they chose Sarah in the first place. And just as you’re becoming super terrified of Lester, he shows his softer side. Lester shows Sarah that he’s created a little sewing room for her to make costumes. It’s such a genuine moment of kindness and you suddenly suspect Lester might not be as fully into this cult as he seems. And then in the finale, there’s a heartbreaking moment where Sarah is SO close to freedom – her hand is outside of the front door, clinging to freedom as a cult member is tackling her. But Lester pulls him off, allowing Sarah freedom, she turns around and he gestures for her to run. He then closes the door, which automatically locks all the cult members inside, and shoots himself. It was incredibly moving.
Now the final ending is something I LOVED. Sarah is finally free from the building – she’s been through hell and back. She’s seen her only friend, Lisa, shot in the head, she’s seen Lester sacrifice himself, she’s been tortured, manipulated, and forced to send her Dad away so that he would never return (where she tells him “the next time I wanna see you is at your funeral”). But now she’s free, covered in blood, in the street. She takes in a deep breathe and spins around to see where to go, but suddenly notices a security camera on the building across the street. Then she notices the cult symbol on the realtor sign on the buildings around her. And then alarms start to sound, one by one, as every building down the block lights up.
You see, the cult wasn’t just in her building, they own this whole fucking block. She laughs out of madness, then steadies herself, clenches her first, and runs.
INCREDIBLE.
You guys, I loved this movie so much. It had so much right about it and took so many crazy turns. There’s just too much to even mention here in this already long-winded review.
I LOVED THIS MOVIE.
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