We love men who know men are usually a problem. That’s why Abner Pastoll’s new film Nervous piqued my attention. The film follows a woman who begins losing the ability to hear men’s voices. However, this gift isn’t as wonderful as it seems. It quickly devolves into a tense little psychological moment that leaves the audience with the right questions.
It’s Not An Earworm
Sungsoo (Sungsoo Yune) surprises his wife Sarah (Sarah Bolger) with a house his aunt gave them. She rightfully pushes back because they should have had a conversation about a decision of this magnitude. We pick up that this couple is not thriving, and this exchange is one of many. However, that moment is interrupted when they find an old lady intruder they have to clear out before figuring out what to do in this new space. Sarah truly tries to adapt to living with her husband in Korea and becoming a housewife. Meanwhile, Sungsoo does nothing to help his Irish bride feel less isolated. He also doesn’t seem interested in taking accountability for the strain on the marriage that stems from his actions.
Sarah’s problems get worse when she and Sungsoo play a record on a gramophone found in the attic of their new home. What seems like a typical moment triggers something in Sarah that impacts her ears. As her hearing begins to go, her ears begin to bleed, and doctors cannot find a cause; Sarah’s isolation becomes even more severe. The one friend she has made, Eunbyeol (Ko Asung), seems to be the only person who believes her and the only one willing to tell her the truth about her marriage. Eunbyeol becomes Sarah’s life raft in the sea of complications and confusion that send her spiraling as she desperately seeks answers.
Why Nervous Works
The sound team creates some deliciously cool moments as they force the audience to hear (or not hear) alongside Sarah. Nick Baldock (supervising sound editor & re-recording mixer), Thomas Holroyd (sound effects editor), and Joey Little (adr mixer) are a stressful trio. It’s easy to get swept up in Sarah’s panic as her husband’s voice drops out or feel nervous for her when she can’t hear what men are saying about her. This movie could be a masterclass on how to build tension from silence and how playing with volume can raise our collective heart rate.
Another thing working in Nervous’ favor is that while it feels familiar, it’s not the movie you think it is. We’ve all seen women move to different countries with men they should divorce in countless horror movies. For a fifteen-minute stretch, I wondered if this would swerve into the lane of Chloe Okuno’s Watcher. Or if it would go more Robert Zemeckis’s What Lies Beneath and reveal Sungsoo has crossed multiple lines.
Subtitles didn’t work in the Screamfest LA screening, so we were fully immersed in Sarah’s POV. While that wasn’t intentional, it also left us with some Korean dialogue that sounded intriguing as we used context clues. That being said, it feels like a happy accident and provided new layers of empathy for this character. We were truly with her as people talked about her like she wasn’t there, and no one tried to help her understand these moments.
Where Credit Is Due
Pastoll and Richard Hobley tag-teamed this script and brought to life a woman character who feels real. Most of us know someone like Sarah (or we were Sarah), who lost parts of herself for the sake of holding onto a relationship that was already dead. The writers treat her with dignity as she begins to remember who she is and what she is capable of. This is amazing, as most male filmmakers are convinced they need perfect victims and spineless women at the center of these stories.
Bolger’s performance also makes Sarah feel like a woman rather than an outdated idea of an old trope. Whether she’s being gaslit by her husband, being told her bloody ears are a psych problem by her doctors, or sharing sparks with Eunbyeol, she is always grounded. She is always steering the film even if she’s not sure where she’s going. We love to see it because it allows her hearing problems to touch on so many topics. Aside from healthcare’s historically awful treatment of women, we can also wonder if the inability to hear men comes from a queer awakening. There is also that shared fear of our bodies betraying us that many of us feel as we age or experience illness. Nervous is truly a horror of the mind in this regard.
Not To Be A Broken Record
Nervous offers tons of cool moments while also finding its own path through some very important conversations. It’s a pleasant surprise and a breath of fresh air in the isolated wife thriller. It is also a new entry in the good-for-her subgenre that refuses to put a bow on this present and spoon-feed audiences all the answers.
Miss Sharai Bohannon
I am a playwright, aspiring screenwriter, podcaster, and a bunch of other words I’m not allowed to use here. I am one-half of the podcast 'Blerdy Massacre', and I host another podcast, ‘A Nightmare on Fierce Street’, as well. I have bylines at Fangoria, HorrorBuzz, Neon Splatter, NightTide Magazine, and some other cool online outlets. I can usually be found yelling about intersectional horror on some social media platform or another. I am also a proud member of CherryPicks, The Online Association of Female Film Critics, and Rotten Tomatoes. If you can’t tell, I’m really fun at parties.
