Hulu has been growing their original horror content for a long time. For those of us who remember the premiere of Into the Dark in October 2018, horror fans eagerly anticipated monthly original movies from the streamer in collaboration with Blumhouse Television. I was heartbroken when it ended. As Into the Dark faded out, Hulu shifted to a more traditional anthology series with Monsterland, which never really found its footing. There was also a shorts anthology the streamer picked up, which has since served as the launching pad for several of their new projects. Control Freak comes from Shal Ngo’s short film Control, an episode in Season 2 of Hulu’s Bite-Size Halloween, the same source that brought us Appendage, The Mill, Clock, Mr. Crocket, and Carved.

If you’ve only caught the last couple of Bite-Size Halloween shorts-turned-features, you may think there’s a certain spiritedness about the shorts Hulu has chosen. Mr. Crocket and Carved are two richly entertaining films that air on the fun side of the horror experience. Control Freak, however, is far darker. Posing a question about self-restraint and composure to a motivational speaker who can’t stop itching her scalp. How can a life coach persuade you to take charge of your life when they can’t seem to control themselves?

Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s Kelly Marie Tran stars as Val, a motivational speaker on the verge of becoming the next Tony Robbins, when she’s suddenly afflicted with a relief-less itch. Val talks about punishment, intention, and avoiding indulgences as part of her no-nonsense approach to changing people’s lives, then begins to fall apart on the precipice of a world tour. Ngo plays the catalyst for Val’s itching ambiguously. Is it stress? Is it the lies she’s telling her husband/producer (Y2K’s Miles Robbins) about wanting a baby? Is it the ant infestation funneling out from a hole in her drywall? Is it the hunt for her birth certificate, dredging up old memories of her mother’s death? Or is there a demon attached to her like a parasite?

All of Val’s issues seem to erupt at the same time as her involuntary scratching, but things start getting worse as monstrous hallucinations and the wound on her head become increasingly fearsome. Ngo starts the viewers on their journey to discover what’s going on with Val and puts her just as much in the dark as them, making for a very intriguing body-horror monster movie.

Fun fact: Like yawning, itching is contagious behavior. So you may feel psychologically compelled to scratch while watching Control Freak. I know I did. Ngo’s barrage of insects and fervent itching creates the perfect storm of irritation empathy, causing viewers to imitate Val’s behavior. It’s the right amount of William Castle-styled immersion that’s slightly gimmicky but remains intensely stirring. Tran gives a fantastic performance as Val, weaving her in and out between her authoritative persona and vulnerable, unraveling victim. And Ngo infuses tricks from Asian horror cinema (Dark Water, for sure) to help bring the plot of the film together.

Unfortunately, Control Freak never pops. Elements of the movie don’t really seem to fit together cohesively enough to affect the viewer the way the story intends. Ngo treats his thematic intention like a major reveal, which means it’s spoiler territory for me to define it outright here, as Val and the viewer don’t begin to see what’s happening until the third act. Suffice it to say that it shares similar fears of hereditary endowment to The Monkey’s. However, the film approaches Val’s health issues with stark gravity, mirroring the themes, investigatory template, and color palette to more closely resemble Parker Finn’s Smile. While I like the creature design and the overall concept of Ngo’s film, Control Freak’s most disturbing and effective scenes are all within the last half hour, making the journey to the end feel elongated.

There’s a lot of Control Freak that’s exceptional. The mix of CG and practical effects is done tremendously well, the embedded symbolism in the final frames and general cinematography are lovingly orchestrated, and the writing is smart, even if the story itself could use a little work. I think there will be a handful of horror fans who will absolutely have their minds blown by Control Freak, but this one lands squarely in the middle for me.