1BR is probably the closest to a "pure" Horror film that I've seen in some time. Let me qualify that. If you want to be scared by a ghost or monster out of fantasyland or want a time-wasting slasher with a few jump scares, this isn't for you. If you can't tolerate sadistic stuff and are particularly squeamish around body horror, I'd pass as well. I found myself looking away more than once.
I think 1 BR is a very significant film for the horror genre because it doesn't hold back anything in the way of manmade evil. It's closer to Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Night of the Living Dead than Get Out or Us, for example (both good films but not in this league at all). It's suspenseful, beyond creepy, and genuinely anxiety inducing in ways the supernatural or paranoid fantasies just can't touch. It's one of those films that I'm glad to have purchased but if someone were to ask me when I'd watch it again... I can't say I'm ready for that commitment quite yet. Many great films aren't a joyride every minute to sit through. All the truth-telling can hurt after a while.
Watching the trailer I was skeptical of Nicole Brydon Bloom's ability to carry off the lead in this movie, but she is well-cast and has a sort of muted intensity close to Olivia Hussey's performance in Black Christmas (1974). The rest of the cast is solid, especially Taylor Nichols who is a long way from playing the endearing nebbish in Whit Stillman's early films/
We follow Bloom's character as she arrives on-the-run from a bad previous life with a philandering dominating father and dead mother. She stumbles into an apartment complex whose tenants seem a bit too content for their own good, then shortly (very shortly, this film pulls no punches) things go way off the charts, and we're not talking about walls that drip blood or discovering Jeff Dahmer's your next door neighbor. No, this is a real life nightmare and there's no Freddy to save you from it.
What's odd is that I wouldn't call this film "original". 1BR borrows heavily from previously made horror movies and novels, and though it charts familiar territory, it does it with such tremendous earnestness that it's tough to quibble with. If anything, it's flaw might be that it's a bit too perfect script-wise. It's signature song is a nice nod to Danny Boyle's 1994 classic debut Shallow Grave, and shares that film's pitch soot sensibility.
As with any extreme work of art, 1BR will polarize people. But if nothing else, 1BR is going to be a stellar calling card for writer/director David Marmor. He definitely understands the genre and what the hardcore fans want, and he isn't hanging onto paranoid totems and crutches to make his point.
No, pure fear of each other works just fine in this case.
