You’ll Want to Move Out of the Horror-Thriller ‘1BR’ on Netflix – Thrillist

We all like to think about what we'd do if we were trapped in a cult. Well, okay, maybe we don't all like to think about that, but if we do think about it, we fantasize about how easy it would be to reject the insane dogmas, avoid the poisoned drinks, and, if it comes down to it, escape a community full of brainwashed weirdos. Of course, it's never that easy, and the horror-thriller 1BR, written and directed by David Marmor and streaming on Netflix as of this week after an April VOD release, traps an unwitting young woman inside a community of zealots who torture people into creating the perfect utopian community.

When twentysomething Sarah (Nicole Brydon Bloom), newly relocated to Los Angeles with nothing but a sewing machine and a dream to pursue costume design, stumbles upon a listing for a one-bedroom apartment inside a friendly complex, it seems too good to be true. She's charmed by the community of people living within the beige stucco walls, a small village of all ages and backgrounds who all seem to know everything about each other, and by the novelty of a whole apartment complex of people who are all great friends with each other. (Never a good sign!) Her apartment is fine enough, but Sarah is plagued by night after night of clanging pipes in the walls and someone slipping nasty, threatening notes under her door about her cat. As it turns out, she was chosen from a group of prospective renters by the complex's leader, a man named Jerry (Taylor Nichols), who first deprives her of sleep and then locks her inside her apartment, takes all her belongings, and tortures her until she assimilates into their cultish community. Talk about a Hotel California.

At only an hour and a half, the movie is a breezy cult thriller with a few horrific torture scenes sprinkled in, but it does little to set itself apart from much scarier, and much more insidious, cult movies of the past. I was reminded of Martha Marcy May Marlene, which focused on a young woman's journey post-escape from a cult, struggling to rejoin normal society after her mind-altering experience; and of The Invitation, particularly one twist that played powerfully at that movie's conclusion, that, in a similar event at the end of 1BR, just seems like an unfair extension of the main character's trauma. 1BR offers little besides occasional gross-out thrills and traditional cult movie scares, but by the end, like Sarah, all you want is to be put out of your misery.

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You'll Want to Move Out of the Horror-Thriller '1BR' on Netflix - Thrillist