Major spoilers ahead for Hulu movie Control Freak
Control Freak is the latest Hulu Original horror movie, a dark psychological body horror film starring Kelly Marie Tran as a motivational speaker inflicted with a parasitic demon of some kind. Like previous Hulu horror films, Clock and Mr. Crocket, Control Freak is a feature-length film from writer/director Shal Ngo based on his short produced for Hulu's Bite Size Halloween series (the original episode is just titled "Control" and aired as part of the second season).
When we first meet Valerie, she's a successful and poised self-help guru preparing to go on a major tour for her new book and deliver her motivating speeches across the world. But her head starts itching (and yours will too when you watch this), progressively becoming worse and leading her to act out in frightening ways. Val is forced to confront something sinister that has been haunting her family for generations.
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The truth about Val’s mother and father
Val’s most significant trauma stems back to her childhood, when her mother drowned. A tranquil day with young Val and her mom on a rowboat turns horrific when her mom falls into the water and Val tries, and fails, to save her. Even as an adult, she remains traumatized by what happened, blaming herself for being unable to save her mom. The residual guilt and grief is what gives life to her most controlling habits.
But the movie later reveals that Val’s memory is inaccurate. Believing her daughter to be possessed by the Sanshi, Val’s mom actually attempted to drown her and therefore kill the creature. Val’s dad intervened, drowning her mom in the process so that their daughter could escape.
Unfortunately, Val’s dad is also haunted by the creature. He believes he summoned it during the war amid all the death. It’s obvious that the man is a traumatized veteran, and being responsible for his wife’s death only made things worse. He became an addict and pretty much abandoned Val until she comes to him as an adult asking questions.
Real or all in Val’s head?
Control Freak plays around a lot with ambiguity. Is the Sanshi real? It’s obviously a metaphor for generational trauma, but is the monster Val sees an actual, tangible being?
The movie never fully confirms or denies this, though it does somewhat hint toward it being real during the climax when Robbie (Miles Robbins) sees the diminished Sanshi in Val’s arms. Still, it’s possible what he saw wasn’t the same thing as we only see it from Val’s perspective.
From the start of the film, only Val can see and experience the Sanshi and it’s many hallucinations. People around Val only see her reacting to the frightening stimuli and incessantly scratching her head, therefore making it hard to say what’s real or not.
When Val eventually has a public breakdown during the opening night of her tour, she’s taken to the hospital where the doctor finds out she has scratched a literal hole into her skull. And guess what? This medical nightmare actually happened to a woman in real life. Like Val, she had a bacterial infection that led to the softening of the cranial tissue.
Anyway, with a confirmed diagnosis, we learn all the hallucinations and everything that’s happened to Val could be the result of this infection. At one point Val even notices a bug crawling on her X-ray scan and clearly questions her sanity.
In the end, it doesn’t really matter if the Sanshi was real or not because its influence on Val’s life remains the same whether it’s real or just a manifestation of generations of trauma and Val’s worst compulsions given life.
Vanquishing the Sanshi and its true meaning
Post-recovery, Val comes face-to-face with the Sanshi once again. Resolved to rid herself of the creature for good, she ties Robbie to their bed and goes into the basement to create a saw rig. The Sanshi has been trying to convince Val to harm herself, and she does, sawing off her own hand.
Doing so lures the demon out, and it coaxes her into cutting off her other hand, too. Val tricks it, using the saw to cut the creature’s hand off instead. A vicious fight ensues and for a moment, it seems like Val has successfully killed it. But then its limbs regenerate and the fight continues outside.
Val eventually yanks the monster into the swimming pool and goes down with it, trying to drown it and maybe herself, too. But Robbie escapes his bindings and saves her. When Val surfaces, she’s shown cradling a smaller, fetal-like version of the Sanshi that dissolves in her arms. Almost like she had to save her childhood self from the guilt she carried all these years. An overhead shot shows the Sanshi’s body also dissolving in the pool, ending its reign of terror.
The scene of Val holding the "baby" Sanshi is also indicative of the film's overall message: we all have bad things inside of us, but it's up to us whether or not we let them control us. Val finally mastered the darkness within.
Val, Robbie, and their baby’s future
The last time we see Robbie is during a scene where Val reveals she’s pregnant by gifting him an envelope containing her sonogram. Far from being overjoyed by the news, Robbie looks stricken, and who can blame him? After everything that’s happened, his hesitance is understandable.
Val still has hope they can raise their child together but the film leaves it ambiguous as to whether or not Robbie sticks around, with a final sequence showing Val standing alone by the lakeside, cradling her child. Robbie’s notable absence suggests he’s no longer in the picture.
Even worse, a bug can be seen briefly crawling on the child, hinting that the Sanshi might return someday for Val's baby. But Val’s final internal monologue provides some hope. Her newfound understanding of the entity and its direct correlation to her mental state means she’s better equipped to conquer the creature again, should it start showing signs in her child.
As she says to her baby, "There are bad things inside us, and they will always be there. We will live, we will love, but we can't escape from what we are. Will we let it destroy us?"
Understanding the connection between the Sanshi and the psyche may help Val avoid making her parents mistakes and prepare her child for the future without all the secrecy. The fact that the movie ends with a happy Val near the water again—versus the opening drowning sequence—further shows her growth, creating nice bookends for the film and her character arc.