Samantha is at college, works in a coffee shop and has to care for her mother. However, her life changes when Mark, someone she's seen on campus invites her along to join him and two others using a device, which allows them to go inside the head of someone else and be them...
When I decided to go to FrightFest this year, I knew I would be able to do the whole event.So, while I got a couple of day passes, for the rest I only picked films that I really wanted to see and in the beginning, InControl was one, I choose not. However, having spoken with the film's writer and director, Kurtis David Harder, at the FrightFest quiz, I changed my mind and got a ticket for the film. I'm glad I did.
On the surface, the story here isn't anything new. The Boris Karloff starring 1967 film The Sorcerers had a similar idea, although there it was a more deadly, horror influenced film. In this film though the rules for using the device are carefully laid out, rules designed not to harm, or in turn cause harm by the one they have taken over. That's not to say you can't, but the idea is not to harm the other persons life when you leave their head.
However, Samantha uses the box, to try and fix problems in her own life and in doing so becomes obsessed with Marissa, Mark's girlfriend who seems totally comfortable with him hanging round with other girls, but who is also everything Samantha thinks she herself is not.
However gradually the group, also including Jenny and Victor begin to wonder about the device and its purpose. It's revealed Victor took it, but no-one ever came looking for it. Is there something else going on that none of the group can see?
If there is one thing that will have me siding with a film is if the writer credits the audience with intelligence. They don't spoon feed them with all the answers, instead letting them come up with their own theories and ideas. Of course there are films where you need those details given to you, but InControl isn't one of them.
When the film does reach its final act, it's clear something else has being going on, but Harder refuses to explain it all. I have my own ideas, as I'm sure others who saw the film did. As a film it's more an extended Twilight Zone episode, or something similar.
The central cast, Levi Meaden, Shayla Stonechild, Anja Savcic and Rory J. Saper are all very good indeed. The supporting cast, including Brittany Allen (whom I saw in the excellent It Stains The Sands Red at FrightFest Glasgow) are good too.
Kurtis David Harder has made a small, but interesting and low-key Sci-Fi film, one that will have you questioning reality but not in a Matrix type of way, instead wondering if those decisions you made, were made by you.
As a film it might not add anything new to the genre, but like Cube for example, by refusing to explain all, it makes it an interesting one.
Worth checking out.
Rating - 3/5
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