UNSANE

Name: UNSANE
Item: UNSANE
Author: Steph Manthe

"Trapped in a Psych Ward with a Stalker"

Content: -3 Excessive sex, violence, immorality, and/or worldview problems. (Sometimes excessive content such as violence is in otherwise redemptive movies.)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

UNSANE is a scary psychological thriller about a trapped young woman. Sawyer has to relocate hundreds of miles away to get away from a man viciously stalking her in Boston. Upon moving to a new city, she seeks the help of a counselor at a psychiatric hospital when she keeps seeing the man’s face. Before she knows it, she’s being involuntarily committed to the psych ward and placed in the hospital with people who are terrifyingly unstable. When she begins to see her stalker again as a male hospital nurse, she begins to question her own sanity.

UNSANE is a psychological thriller focusing on the confusion between reality and delusion that the young heroine experiences. Excellent camerawork and cinematography help viewers experience her story. Claire Foy of THE CROWN is fantastic as the heroine, but some of the other actors are rather sub-par and aren’t completely convincing as she is. Also, though good conquers evil in the end, UNSANE has a strong pagan worldview overall, with an excessive amount of objectionable content, including extreme violence, lewd references and obscene dialogue.

Content:

(PaPa, B, C, Ho, LLL, VVV, SS, A, DD, MM):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Strong overarching pagan worldview where there is no moral code and anything goes and selfish desires are pursued above all else, human life is not valued and characters sacrifice others for their own gain of freedom, people use sex for their benefit offering it for favors or goods, the institution is corrupt and the governed have to fend for themselves or fight for a way out, minor moral, redemptive elements as good overcomes evil and the heroine triumphs over the villain, plus a homosexual moment when a woman kisses another woman to calm her down;

Foul Language:

At least 52 obscenities (many “f” word) and seven profanities, plus some toilet humor and jokes about urine, and woman takes out her used tampon and throws it at another person,

Violence:

High amount of violence and blood, including extreme or very strong violence, such as woman kicks man in the groin and punches him in the face, a few examples of some pretty graphic threats, man smashes another man’s face into a mirror and knocks him out, man tortures another man in the basement (includes a fair amount of blood), woman throws coffee in someone’s face and proceeds to attack but is stopped by hospital employees, man stabbed in the neck, man kills woman by snapping her neck, one character is knocked out by being hit in the back of the head and wakes up in the trunk of a car next to a dead body, a man hits a woman’s ankle with a hammer, man’s throat is slit with blood gushing all over the other character;

Sex:

Strong sexual references but no depicted sex includes main character’s married boss flirts with her, sexual self-pleasure is mentioned casually during a meeting in the psych ward, jokes about self-abuse, character offers to give man oral sex in exchange for using his cell phone, woman tells man that in order to prove his love he has to bring a girl to her and fornicate while she watches them, and a woman kisses another woman to calm her down;

Nudity:

No explicit nudity but woman is shown in her bra while being strip searched during admission into a psych ward and woman is shown taking a shower through the foggy door;

Alcohol Use:

A couple on a date meet at a bar and drink together and take shots of liquor;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

A few characters smoke cigarettes occasionally, all patients in the psych ward take drugs for mental stability; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Strong miscellaneous immorality includes elements of stalking and kidnapping, mental instability is depicted throughout the entire film on many different levels, multiple murders for personal desires or self-defense, psychiatric wards are depicted as negative and only concerned about profits, a few examples of moral relativism.

More Detail:

UNSANE is a psychological thriller about a young woman involuntarily trapped in a psych ward, where she constantly sees the face of her old stalker.

After being stalked by a man in Boston, Sawyer Valentini moves hundreds of miles away to get away from him and start a new life in freedom. Her new coworkers don’t really take to her abrasive demeanor, but her boss seems to be a little too friendly. After going on a date and seeing her stalker’s face on the man instead of who he really is, she seeks the help of a counselor at a psychiatric hospital. After admitting to the counselor that she has had the occasional suicidal thought, she’s involuntarily committed to the psych ward. She is strip searched and put in a bed next to a woman who’s immediately aggressive towards her and is clearly not in her correct state of mind. Sawyer demands to be removed immediately and uses her one phone call to call 911. However, when she hits a hospital employee, she’s labeled as a harm to herself and others and must remain for an additional week.

Another patient in the hospital briefs Sawyer on how to survive her time there, and he quickly becomes her confidant. However, she begins to doubt her own sanity when she sees the face of her stalker on a man working in the hospital. She’s convinced that his real name is David, not George, the name he wears on his ID badge. She contacts her mother, who comes there from Boston to try and help her get out of the hospital. The mother tells Sawyer that she’s going to hire lawyers and get her out as soon as possible.

Sawyer has many elements working against her at this point. She’s stuck in a psych ward, at a constant battle with the other patients. In the meantime, the medicine that they are giving her isn’t helping, and she questions her sanity. She has one ally in the hospital, but she hasn’t heard from her mother in days. To top it all off, there is a man working in the ward who she believes to be her stalker from Boston, but no one will believe her. Sawyer has to hold desperately onto her sanity and try to fight her way out.

The story in UNSANE revolves around the confusion of Sawyer as she questions her reality and delusions. The story is shot with a very unique camera style, with movements and angles that add a lot to the distortion the character is feeling. Claire Foy completely transforms from her usual appearance as Queen Elizabeth in THE CROWN and gives an amazing performance. However, a few of the other actors in the film are rather sub-par and aren’t completely convincing. Many of their lines are delivered relatively flat and are not engaging. Although UNSANE is a psychological thriller, the psychological elements are over about halfway through the movie. Thus, the plot twists and the truth they reveal aren’t that complex.

UNSANE contains a high amount of questionable content. There are about 60 or more obscenities and profanities. There’s also a high degree of violence, including blood and multiple graphic scenes. There are many elements that are conspiratorial and anti-institution, as well as many crass statements and strong sexual immorality. Although good eventually does triumph over evil, the movie’s strong pagan worldview and excessive content warrant extreme caution.

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Quality:

- Content: -3