'Control Freak', now streaming on Hulu, showcases Kelly Marie Tran as Val, a motivational speaker struggling with a relentless itch on her head. As she tries various remedies, the itch transforms into a metaphor for her suppressed anxiety, highlighting themes of mental health intertwined with generational trauma stemming from her parents' escape from the Vietnam War. Directed by Shal Ngo, the film is inspired by a true story where someone scratched through their skull due to an unbearable itch, provoking both psychological and physical horror elements that resonate with viewers.
"By the end, I was pretty unwell," she laughed.
"I'm playing in these really high-anxiety moments in someone's mind, and it got really intense," Tran told Polygon in a video call alongside Ngo.
Ngo got the idea for the movie from a disturbing true story, recounted in a New Yorker article, about a woman who had an itch so bad, she scratched through her skull and into her brain.
The itch also has a psychological dimension anyone can relate to: It represents Val's persistent, suppressed anxiety breaking through her attempts to clamp down on it.
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