Control Freak is streaming on Hulu on March 13.
In the last few years, horror has become the cultural zeitgeist in the world of cinema. Horror is relatively easy to produce and gathers much higher returns on investment than prestige drama used to. As the relative popularity of horror increases, specific subgenres are receiving far more attention than ever. Between The Substance making history through its Best Picture Oscar nomination and Dave Franco and Alison Brie’s raucous Sundance flick Together being the biggest sale of the 2025 festival, it’s clear that this freaky subgenre is part of the moment, at least for a while. Hulu is looking to enter this scene through Control Freak, an unsettling horror flick that’s a mess from start to finish.
Control Freak Review
Shal Ngo’s sophomore debut tells the story of a motivational speaker, Val (Star Wars’s Kelly Marie Tran), whose life spirals out of control after she becomes convinced that a parasitic demon has implanted inside her head. Like many other body horror films, this film takes audiences through a series of misdirects and confusion as everything is left up to the imagination.
“Did that really just happen?” is a fine question to ask yourself once in a film. Having good twists and turns is important! What sucks about a movie like this is that almost every scene will leave you asking that same question. There aren’t many good twists in this because every step of the way feels like it’s intentionally misguiding you.
For most of this film’s 105-minute runtime, we follow Val as she slowly loses her marbles. An unmistakable sense of dread has filled her, a sense of dread that can only be cured by scratching her head—scratch, scratch, scratch. There’s a particularly frustrating cliché in modern horror filmmaking where a character slowly peels at a hangnail. As the pressure builds up, it becomes a gross, bloody mess.
This entire movie is the equivalent of pulling a hangnail. It’s meant to be gross and uncomfortable. Everybody around Val seems pretty normal, so why doesn’t she ask for their help? Well, she’d look crazy if she explained any of this, of course. So, she’s left to keep elevating her struggle to find help on her own.
Meanwhile, her relationship with her significant other, Robbie (Y2K’s Miles Robbins) is tested through all of this. Since a film like this is designed to be as frustrating as possible, Val makes zero attempt to explain what’s going on to Robbie. She instead bides her time by scratching away at her head, smushing (probably) imaginary ants, and going insane.
It’s all a recipe for disaster wrapped around an uninteresting metaphor for self-hatred. Val delivers corny monologues about self-help, making Ngo’s subtext corny and dull. This movie is designed to be as frustrating as possible, and it certainly succeeds in that regard.
Is Control Freak worth watching?
Like any good body horror movie, though, Control Freak sports a conclusion that is fun for the sickos. It’s gory and intense, throwing any pretense of realism out the window and leaving you with far more questions than answers. It’s an interesting way to end a film that mostly plays it safe with tired cliché and bad writing.
Even with a decent conclusion, Control Freak is far too frustrating to be considered a good use of your time. Body horror fans might find this a good time, but outside of that key audience, this just is a waste. The performances just aren’t good enough to keep you drawn in the whole way through. You won’t want to sit through 80 minutes of overplayed tropes for a conclusion that has only a little bit of intrigue. This is an unbalanced mess in a tired genre.
Control Freak is streaming on Hulu on March 13.
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