If the camera lingered just a little more lasciviously on the opening sex scene, or if we got to ogle the bondage-clad ladies writhing in their glass booths in the underground strip club sequence l…
If the camera lingered just a little more lasciviously on the opening sex scene, or if we got to ogle the bondage-clad ladies writhing in their glass booths in the underground strip club sequence longer, Chloe Okuno’s smart little feature debut might be said to herald the longed-for return of the lost, lamented erotic thriller.
, who gets the mature, psychologically rich showcase she’s fully earned with all the running and bleeding she’s done heretofore as a horror heroine. Given the recycled archetypes and often predictable plotting, it takes quite some skill, and Nathan Halpern’s fine, suspenseful score, to preserve a sense of eeriness. Benjamin Kirk Nielsen’s unshowy photography is a stealth virtue here too, remaining in such a naturalistic register that the few jump scares land and the genre-mandated minimum of bloodletting is queasily effective.