Connect with us
1BR Movie Review
Image: Dark Sky Films

Film

1BR and the Horror of Community

A harrowing, unnerving, experience but one nevertheless worth having.

1BR Review

*This review contains minor spoilers*

Despite their name, most horror movies evoke — or at least try to evoke — two distinct reactions: horror and terror. Terror is more visceral, more immediate, causing us to flinch and cry out when a monster or knife-wielding maniac bursts out of the darkness. Horror, on the other hand, runs a bit deeper. True horror is that feeling in the pit of your stomach when you see something deeply wrong, a subversion of the ordered way of things or pulling back of the curtain to reveal something monstrous and evil that previously appeared normal. Terror makes us recoil and averts our eyes, but when confronted with horror, it becomes almost impossible to look away. 1BR, from first-time director David Marmor, deals very explicitly in the horror side of the equation. Deeply disturbing and affecting, the film is more than likely to leave the viewer with a deep, lingering sense of dread and oppression, and a newfound mistrust of friendly strangers.

Nicole Brydon Bloom stars as Sarah, a young woman who has come to LA like so many others in search of a fresh start. She moves into an apartment complex with a seemingly friendly and outgoing roster of tenants who try and make her feel welcome. But strange noises abound in the night, and just as Sarah begins to suspect that her new home is not as idyllic as she had thought, she is plunged into a harrowing ordeal. Her neighbors reveal themselves to be a kind of cult, living an enforced communal lifestyle pioneered by a 70s self-help guru. Sarah is imprisoned in her apartment and tortured, with the end goal being indoctrination into their way of life.

1BR is a challenging film to get through, especially in the early scenes of Sarah’s capture and torment. While it isn’t as gruesome as something like Hostel or Wolf Creek, the film still devotes an amount of time to presenting our protagonist being subjected to bone-chilling cruelty. There’s a sense of utter helplessness and despair to these sequences that will leave many viewers running for the door, and that reaction is quite understandable. Watching someone be betrayed, dehumanized, and broken down both physically and psychologically is an incredibly difficult thing to watch. But it’s what comes after the more extreme sequences that the true horror begins, as Sarah learns more about her captors’ ways and secrets.

1BR is the kind of film that’s likely to leave you emotionally and physically drained.

Much of the tension in this section of the film comes from not knowing just how powerful the cult’s hold is on her. We see her early resolve to escape her horrible fate, but as time goes on it becomes harder and harder to tell where Sarah’s true loyalties lay. Much of this is thanks to the stunning performance by Nicole Brydon Bloom, who runs the gamut from utter despair and vulnerability to steely resolve, with a million shades in between. Opposite her, Taylor Nichols and Giles Matthey (among others) play the various members of the cult with sinister charm, going from friendly and welcoming to unfeeling monsters with alarming ease. In a really horrible, disturbing way, they remain charismatic even in their deepest moments of evil, and it becomes very believable that this group has brainwashed as many poor souls as it has.

For the most part, we all want a place to belong — a community that loves us and accepts us and pushes us to be the best versions of ourselves. 1BR takes this need and poses the question of what we’d be willing to endure to obtain that. Would we be willing to undergo the brutal events that befall poor Sarah? To potentially surrender a significant portion of our agency in order to find such a group? It seems like an easy question, but Marmour and his cast throw doubt into the mix — seemingly for Sarah, and in all likelihood, for much of the audience as well. Community and belonging are intoxicating things, and sometimes come at a high cost. But how high is too high? After seeing the film, you may not be so sure anymore.

1BR is the kind of film that’s likely to leave you emotionally and physically drained. It takes the viewer through a gauntlet of emotions and responses, many of them by all metrics deeply unpleasant, and because of this, it falls very firmly in the ‘not for everyone’ camp. But audience members willing to plumb the darker end of the emotional spectrum will find much to like in 1BR. It’s a harrowing, unnerving, experience, but one nevertheless worth having.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on July 22, 2019, as part of our coverage of the Fantasia Film Festival. Visit the official website for more information.

Written By

Beginning as a co-host on a Concordia TV film show before moving on to chief film nerd at Forgetthebox.net, Thomas is now bringing his knowledge of pop-culture nerdery to Sordid Cinema. Thomas is a Montrealer born and raised, and an avid consumer of all things pop-cultural and nerdy. While his first love is film, he has also been known to dabble in comics, videogames, television, anime and more. You can support his various works on his Patreon, at https://www.patreon.com/TomWatchesMovies You can also like the Tom Watches Movies Facebook page to see all his work on Goombastomp and elsewhere.

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Facebook

Trending

Mac Miller’s “Balloonerism” Review

Celebrity

Box Office: ‘Dog Man’ Shows Bite With $36 Million Opening Weekend

Film

Why Steven Spielberg Is Disappointed With Vin Diesel

Film

Who is Bree Purganan? The untold story of Jalen Green’s mom

Celebrity

Aaliyah’s Brother “Rashad Haughton” Claims She Would’ve Been “Biggest Star In The World”

Celebrity

Patricia Cornwell Net Worth: The Crime Fiction Mavens Fortune

Celebrity

Rabbit Trap Review: Dev Patel Stars In A Blend Of Cosmic And Folk Horror

Film

2025 Grammys predictions: Who will win and who will Not

Celebrity

‘Two Women’ Review: From Quebec Comes a Cringy Remake of a 1970 Sex Romp

Film

‘Together’ Review: Dave Franco and Alison Brie Are a Couple Falling Apart (and Fusing) in a Looney-Tunes Bash About the Body Horror of Love

Film

Rachael Kirkconnell says ‘everything was fine’ the night before her breakup with Bachelor star Matt James

Celebrity

Jim Jones Finally Drops Cam’ron Diss “JOMO” After Weeks Of Intense Online Beef

Celebrity

Trevor Noah Returns to Host 2025 Grammy Awards

Celebrity

Cynthia Nixon’s 3 Children: All About Seph, Charles and Max

Celebrity

Nike Air Foamposite One “Galaxy” Drops This February

Reviews

Avatar: Fire And Ash Reveals First New Character, And Everything About Him Sounds Cool

Culture

Connect