Unsane (2018) - Review

Few things are scarier than the sense of being watched. This is true in life, and in cinema. Rear Window and Psycho helped revolutionize this. Later, Halloween and Friday the 13th's POV shots scared audiences as they watched the killers stalk their prey. Unsane continues this tradition of terror.

In Unsane, director Steven Soderbergh crafts a psychological-thriller about Sawyer Valentini (Claire Foy), a successful woman who has been traumatized by a former stalker. Attempting to seek counselling, Sawyer finds herself involuntarily admitted to a mental ward. Making matters worse, Sawyer begins to believe her stalker (Joshua Leonard) is one of her nurses.

The greatest achievement of Unsane is its cinematography. Shot entirely on an iPhone 7 Plus, it is the camerawork that establishes something is not right in this world. None of the scenes are traditionally cinematic, with the camera capturing close-ups either straight on, or far left or right. This disrupts viewers idea of how a movie should look, and discomforts them from the first scene. As well, nearly every shot feels like a POV shot. Soderbergh rests the camera in such a way that we as an audience believe we are the ones being watched. When the first act focuses on whether or not Sawyer does have a mental illness, it is this off-centre cinematography that helps confuse viewers and link the skewed camera with Sawyer's skewed mind.

Another effect used to put viewers in the shoes of Sawyer is the use of lighting on faces. Sawyer, and anyone she 100 percent knows is not her stalker is generally well-lit with an orange light. Meanwhile, when Sawyer is confused about what she is seeing, the characters are cast in shadow, obscuring distinguishing features.

Perhaps my favourite element of the film was the effective rise in terror and thrills as the film progressed. By the time the climax comes, the ending feels earned and organic. Too many times in horror films, scares either come much too early, or much too late. In Unsane, the progression builds nicely. This is helped by the likeability of lead actress Claire Foy. The character has a "normal girl" quality, which helps us empathize and root for her. Joshua Leonard is effectively creepy as the man-child stalker. Finally, keep your eyes peeled for a surprise Matt Damon cameo!

Thomas Newman's score is quite subdued during the film, helping to create a realistic vibe for most scenes. His title/end piece calls to mind classic horror scores like Halloween, which I quite liked.

A final note I wanted to mention was that I really appreciated the treatment of the rest of the mental ward patients. It would have been easy for Soderbergh to go overboard and play all of the patients for laughs, but I thought he walked that line well. We get a sense that they are all regular people caught up in something they cannot control, and in a way are exactly like Sawyer, which is illustrated by the terrific (if derivative) end scene.

I really enjoyed Unsane. The cinematography won me over from the first scene, and I was happy Soderbergh kept the shots consistent throughout. If I have one complaint, it would be that for as good as Unsane is, it never takes that next step up to being great. The third act was horror movie 101, and while that's not a bad thing, it does limit the film. Ultimately, I would recommend to see this one in a MATINEE.