Attention, children, utopias never-ever work! I must admit, I’m somewhat surprised when the socialism-loving yuppies of Hollywood put out their occasional utopian visions gone awry, like 1BR, which is a horrible title, by the way. Is that seriously the best they could come up with?
1BR tells of Sarah (Nicole Brydon Bloom), who has moved to L.A. to pursue her fashion designer career. (I know, I was as surprised as you that it wasn’t an acting career she was after. It’s still basically an art career, though. You never see anyone move to L.A. to pursue their welding or electrician career. Sorry, but it gets tiresome seeing artists always depicting artists.) Sarah finds an apartment that, oddly, has to be unlocked electronically by the apartment manager on the inside each time someone wants to enter the complex. The people comprising the complex’s community seem nice–even overly so–and Sarah thinks she has found the perfect place to start her life anew…until her cat gets baked in the oven and Sarah has her hands nailed to the wall.
The torture is just getting started there. The lengths the community will go to force conformity from their new residents is stunning and eye-opening. Communism, anyone? And the cast is great, especially Taylor Nichols who plays Jerry, the apartment manager and leader of the community. He (and they) seem at the same time cruel and empathetic. Bloom is the only weak performance, depicting Sarah as someone who, whilst being repeatedly tortured, never seems to change her facial expression.
My only real complaint is the gore. The director, David Marmor, and special effects techs took the easy, lazy way out–they used CGI for almost every drop of blood spilt. It’s quite ridiculous to make a movie with heavy doses of mutilation and violence, and then half-ass the parts that should really make viewers cringe. You don’t have to have fucking Tom Savini on your payroll to show realistic blood and torture!
That aside, the flick is fun. And the ending is excellent.
Find it on Amazon or Netflix.