Kelly Marie Tran’s new horror hit Control Freak has captivated critics with bone-chilling accolades. Launching on Hulu tomorrow, Tran plays Valentine “Vy” Nguyen, a driven and ambitious Asian-American life coach and motivational speaker who is on the brink of launching a high-stakes global tour. However, as the pressure of her preparation mounts, Vy begins to experience an unsettling sensation—a persistent “itch” at the back of her head.
Initially, this physical symptom seems like a minor, stress-induced annoyance, but as the film progresses, it intensifies into a more profound and terrifying manifestation. The “itch” transforms from a physical discomfort into a dark, parasitic force that represents the weight of her anxiety and personal struggles.
Written and directed by Shal Ngo, Control Freak has already received swathes of praise. “Hulu scratches the horror itch,” writes The Wall Street Journal. “Like others that have come out of Hulu’s Bite-Size Halloween programming block, it was a short developed into a long-form film, which is always a delicate operation: Short films are not undernourished features; they belong to a genre all their own.”
CBR praised Ngo directly. ” Combining the anxiety epidemic with multicultural folklore is inspired. Writer and director Ngo definitely brought a strong premise to the table, both the first time around, and it does work well in a longer story,” writes Hannah Rose.
Meanwhile, DMT praised Tran as the star. “Coming to the acting, Control Freak is an out-and-out Kelly Marie Tran extravaganza, and I am here for it,” Pramit Chatterjee says.
