FILM REVIEW: CONTROL (2022)

Single-location movies like this are always tricky to get right, to hold the audience’s interest, but Control manages it. 

Control (2022)
Written by James Mark &  Matthew Nayman
Directed by James Mark


Review by: Mark Walker


Get ready for a mind-bending sci-fi thriller. With a fragmented memory and no clear way out, Eileen (Sara Mitich, Star Trek: Discovery) is forced to complete tasks by an unseen entity whilst trapped in a mysterious room, or else her daughter will be killed. Her only clue is Roger (George Tchortov, Kick-Ass), the man imprisoned alongside her, claiming to be her husband - thrust into a reluctant partnership, the two must work together to save Eileen’s daughter. However, nothing is truly as it seems, and very quickly, a much greater plot is unveiled – with Eileen at the centre.

I came to CONTROL knowing very little about it but was instantly intrigued by the synopsis. I do like a bit of sci-fi and, with 2001: A Space Odyssey as one of my favourite films of all time, I was always going to be intrigued by a mind-bending sci-fi-thriller!

But does it live up to expectations?

Well, it’s not quite in the same mind-bending league as 2001 but, then again, what is?

CONTROL wastes no time in getting into the action as Eileen wakes up in an isolation room, with just a chair, a table, an intercom, and a TV screen.

Eileen’s memories are gone and she has no idea how she got into this room, her only link to outside coming in the form of broken memories of playing with her daughter Evie (Evie Loiselle) at the beach.

Before she can even try to figure out where she is and what is going on, a disembodied voice (Karen LeBlanc) instructs her to ‘move the pencil’ that sits on the table before a countdown on the screen runs out. She gets up, pushes it off the table and is then shocked unconscious before waking up and instructed once more to move the pencil. Only this time, she is cuffed and chained to the chair.

The film then follows Eileen’s successive attempts to move the pencil as whoever it is behind the scenes introduces more and more obstacles to her achieving her goal. To make matters worse, the voice also instructs her that if she does not complete the task in the allotted time her daughter will die.

At one point, her husband Roger appears, equally confused, and they reluctantly begin to work together to figure out what is going on. As Eileen’s memories of their strained relationship come back to her, the tension rises. Will they ever figure out what is going on, who is doing this to them and save Evie?

CONTROL takes place almost entirely in one location and is reminiscent of other films where people wake up in mysterious locations or are forced to solve puzzles to save themselves. I found myself thinking of movies like SAW, CUBE, EXAM and CIRCLE and I am a sucker for this set up, so I was definitely looking forward to CONTROL.

The beauty of those films was in the mystery surrounding the set-up, the fun of the plot and the people unravelling as we slowly find out what is going on. The set-up in CONTROL is intriguing enough and we waste no time in getting to the tests that Eileen has to undergo. It is clear early on she has telekinetic powers that are being tested and this adds to the intrigue. Who is she really? Why has she been taken? Who has taken her and what are their plans for her and her power?

Introducing Roger ups the ante and the stakes for them both and the tension is ramped up towards the end of the second act as things start to really get weird.
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However, it is at this point that CONTROL loses it a little. We get to see outside the room and meet a number of heavily armed and armoured guards, as well as seeing lots of weird stuff that adds to our questions around Eileen’s incarceration and Roger’s purpose. But we never really get any answers to anything. We see more of Eileen’s memories come back and they reveal what led to her captors’ interest in her, but we never find out who they are, what they what or what their plans are for Eileen.

As an exploration of grief and guilt, CONTROL works fairly well and the decisions Eileen makes at the end are understandable when you consider the memories that she has recovered; I still wonder if Cypher had the right idea in The Matrix. However. the mystery around the room and the unseen testers is barely touched on and some may find that a little disappointing. I know I did. Not enough for me to hate the film, but enough to be a little irked by the end of it. I can guess, maybe, but it isn’t as satisfying as having a bit more info to play with; I don’t necessarily expect everything to be spelled out, but a few more breadcrumbs might have made it more interesting to think about after the fact. As it is, I enjoyed the film, but it isn’t one that I found myself thinking about in much detail after the credits rolled.

Which is a shame as this is a pretty slick, nice-looking, low-budget thriller. James Mark does a great job at directing and the cast work hard; Mitich and Tchortov admirably carry the majority of the film on their shoulders. Single-location movies like this are always tricky to get right, to hold the audience’s interest, but Control manages it. It is also well-written by James, and Matthew Nayman. The dialogue can feel a bit clunky at times but, again, this can be a problem with such films where you have characters talking to silent, invisible antagonists. I did find myself a little bugged by some of the decisions Eileen and Roger made when solving the puzzles; just do something, stop debating it! But that does help immerse the audience in the action as you find yourself screaming at the screen in the same way Roger shouts at his wife in a really unhelpful attempt to be…encouraging. Actually, now I think about it, Roger is bloody annoying when he first appears!

Overall, I enjoyed my time with CONTROL and, if the synopsis interests you, then I think you will too. It’s always a personal thing, but the lack of detail around Eileen’s incarceration may annoy some, but it is not a deal breaker on what is, otherwise, a decent low-budget thriller.
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Control comes to UK streaming platforms on 26th September 2022.

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