South Australian director Matt Vesely worked with a development lab and funding specifically for first-time feature directors to create a film on a defined, small budget to create this tense, one room, one character, sci-fi thriller.

An unnamed woman, a journalist (Lily Sullivan), is holed up in her parents’ isolated house, as she weathers a media storm about an article she wrote. Desperate for work and distraction, she takes a job making podcast episodes for a ‘Ripley’s Believe it or Not’ kind of show. An anonymous email about a mysterious object sets her off on a trail of phone calls, interviews and emails and down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories and supernatural and extra terrestrial phenomena.

On the surface, this is a well-made thriller that doesn’t look small budget. It reminded me of The Guilty (2018), although with less claustrophobia and more jump scares. Sullivan is intensely watchable as a person struggling with a crisis and trying to hold onto her sense of self. The remoteness of the location adds to the creepy tension, as does the gradual realisation of the size and architectural grandeur of the house and, by extension, our protagonist’s life of privilege.

At a Q&A afterwards, Vesely spoke of the subtext of the film being about who controls the narrative, and how you can be manipulated by that. It’s a subtle one, but it can be seen in how the interviewer’s character is revealed to us, particularly around how she creates a podcast, her ethics and actions under pressure. In the final act there are elements that don’t fit neatly into the quite serious storytelling, but any sci-fi or horror fan will happily go along for the ride.

Director: Matt Vesely
Origin: Australia (2022)
Language: English
Genre: Thriller

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