CONTROL FREAK Key Art | ©2025 Hulu

Rating: TV-MA
Stars: Kelly Marie Tran, Miles Robbins, Kieu Chinh, Toan Le, Callie Johnson, Sabrina Devi, Stanley White Jr., Phu Quoc
Writer: Shal Ngo
Director: Shal Ngo
Distributor: Hulu
Release Date: March 13, 2025 (streaming)

Valerie “Vy” Nguyen (Kelly Marie Tran) is an extremely successful motivational speaker. She has used her own struggles with self-doubt and feelings of worthlessness to create an empire, explaining to others how she triumphed over this and how they can do the same.

Valerie’s husband, producer Robbie (Miles Robbins), is supportive. Valerie’s assistant Crystal (Callie Johnson) likewise wants the best for her boss.

But Valerie is loath to ask for help from either one of them for her compulsive scalp-scratching, which is starting to draw blood. She is also beginning to have nightmares about a figure with long claws and huge teeth.

Valerie’s mom (Sabrina Devi) died when she was young, and her father Sang (Toan Le) is a Buddhist monk who isn’t very involved in her life. When Valerie goes to visit her father after years of estrangement (she needs her birth certificate so she can get a passport), she sees a scroll depicting a demon in his quarters. Sang explains this being is Sunshi, which he describes as a hungry ghost or a hungry parasite. Sang has some very specific ideas about Sunshi. While Valerie would like to dismiss her father’s stories as drug-fueled paranoia, her experiences suggest otherwise.

Written and directed by Shal Ngo, CONTROL FREAK is perfectly upfront about its metaphors. Most people are familiar with the inner demons that tell us we are not good enough, we are inherently unlovable, that we cannot accomplish anything, and that we really ought to destroy ourselves. Sometimes this voice is actively disorienting.

It’s just that in CONTROL FREAK, the demon is not only hideous and determined, it’s also visible and shows up at especially bad moments. Valerie’s self-control and perfectionism (one interpretation of the title; the other is that the demon is controlling her and is certainly freaky) can only take her so far in this battle.

Tran is remarkably persuasive even when Valerie is doing her onstage spiel. Normally, these talks sound like soulless b.s., but Tran gives Valerie a sincerity that lets us understand why her brand is so popular. As the character spirals into mania and despair, we feel for her, and when her inner dynamics shift, Tran makes us believe that as well.

Robbins makes Robbie suitably concerned and confused, and Le suggests layers of sorrow and secrets.

While open about the parallels between mythology and psychology, Ngo deftly avoids making CONTROL FREAK feel on the nose. Because the filmmaker isn’t in the least coy about the horror aspects of what’s happening, and handles exposition quickly and efficiently, the movie streams forward with momentum.

Ngo uses water imagery and long shots of stark environments to underscore Valerie’s condition, visually effective without grandstanding. The demon is suitably monstrous.

Gratifyingly, all of the film’s various strands come together for the climax (one question that will occur to many viewers is answered resoundingly). Thematically and viscerally, CONTROL FREAK succeeds.

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