Sarah moves into an apartment complex to try and begin a new life…only to discover the complex has secrets of its own…
Moving to a new city must be a daunting experience, especially if you have no friends or family to help out. Who do you trust? How do you find places to stay, to work? Make friends and such.
Sarah has left home after her mother’s death and also finding out truths about her father. She wants to enroll in college, wanting to be a designer, while working for a legal film to pay the bills. The apartment seems ideal for her, aside from the ‘no pets’ rule, but she hopes to hide her cat so no one finds out.
It’s often a strange thing, but that little detail lost me a little sympathy for Sarah, though how that aspect of the story ends is both predictable but also cruel. As is the film in a number of ways.
I can’t go into detail regarding where the story goes, as I do think it pulls a couple of surprises I wasn’t expecting, though I did think the ending was a little predictable.
Nicole Brydon Bloom plays Sarah and is very good indeed as she uncovers the secrets of the complex and suffers as a consequence. The supporting cast, including Naomi Grossman, Taylor Nichols, Giles Matthey and Alan Blumenfeld are not too bad either.
The film is written and directed by David Marmor and is his debut feature. I think the writing is good, the film almost in three parts to a degree (something that brought Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs to mind, even if 1BR is not as disturbing or uncomfortable) and each part is well done, both in the writing and direction. As a debut film, it does show a lot of promise.
It’s not scary or have any jump scares but I did find the actual premise certainly a scary one indeed. The violence in the film is mostly brief and is certainly makes an impact when it does happen.
The very end suggests the story is quite clever to a degree and suggests the story may not yet be over. But with or without a follow-up, I did enjoy 1BR.
Though is does make you wonder about where you are living…
Rating: *** out of 5
