Directed by David Marmor, 1BR is a psychological thriller that turns community into a sinister word. It’s a refreshing take on a nightmare that’s uncomfortably relevant for any woman searching craigslist for an apartment. The film succeeds in showing all the trappings of a cult within a contemporary world where young millennials fail to see red flags. Several themes surface throughout the movie, including social conditioning, groupthink and violent force used to weaken a woman’s control over her life and body. This film can be seen as a metaphor for society at large and how it crushes a woman’s independence with the use of a problematic doctrine that ultimately suppresses womanhood.
Sarah, played by Nicole Brydon Bloom, is a 20-something aspiring costume designer, who moves to LA with her tabby cat to start a new life. Though naive and shy at times, she is optimistic about her future after leaving her domineering father. Once her mother died, she decided there was no need to stay, knowing her father had cheated on her mother for years. Once in LA, she finds a job and befriends Lisa (Celeste Sully), an outspoken coworker, who motivates her to chase her dreams. She finds the perfect apartment with friendly neighbors who have weekly BBQs. However, something is amiss in this “too good to be true” apartment complex, called “Asilo del Mar”, or “Asylum by the Sea.” Just as Sarah is on the brink of self-discovery with a new job, apartment and what seems to be a loving community, she loses control over her life.
The tenants are the ideal neighbors, always attentive and caring towards Sarah. However, for the skeptical viewer, there is a feeling of clinginess, especially when cute neighbor Brian (Giles Matthey) repeatedly invites Sarah to a dinner party. By the time Sarah discovers her punishment for not obeying the “no pets” rules is the roasting of her tabby cat, it’s too late to escape. She learns that tenants have been conditioned to abandon their individual desires in order to keep the community intact. Each tenant or member is given a new purpose in life that aligns with the needs of the group. Their sense of loyalty is based on force and manipulation, so no one rebels for fear of punishment. Tenants give up their privacy for the collective whole; they use self-policing and camera surveillance to keep track of everyone. Jerry, played by Taylor Nichols, the manager of the apartment complex, is responsible for picking new members and acclimating them to this cult-like community.
At its core, violence, social conditioning, and groupthink play a major role in brainwashing Sarah and other tenants. Sarah is first locked in a room and made to stand with her hands against the wall in what is called a “stress position.” As long as the lights are on, she has to stay in that position. After several days she falls from exhaustion, and her hands are then nailed to the wall. This establishes the physical control the community has over her, which erodes her willpower to defend herself. Through several interrogation methods, Jerry is able to de-program Sarah and replace her previously held beliefs with those acceptable to the community.
The women reinforce indoctrination and reward Sarah with kindness once she begins accepting her new life. For example, after doing the painful “stress position” the women of the complex surround Sarah, and try to soothe her by looking over her wounds and brushing her hair. Sarah is not the only woman who has been de-programmed to ignore her own sense of individuality and morality. Edith (Susan Davis), the only senior in the complex, has dedicated her life to the community, even abandoning her acting career. She is used as a pawn to break Sarah and pacify her by acting like a benevolent grandmother. In her ultimate act of misguided selflessness, Edith allows herself to be suffocated by members. She cannot keep burdening the community with sickness and old age, when the community needs healthy bodies to sustain the system. She is willing to subjugate a vulnerable young woman to this patriarchal system, knowing that the only way to escape is by death.
Charles D. Ellerby, a psychologist who encouraged forms of torture to insure comformity and unity, created the idealogy in order to keep communities intact. In his book, “The Power of Community,” the mantra “selflessness, openness, acceptance, and security” is used as a guiding principle. On the surface the language seems benign, somewhat meditative, but the behaviors tied to those words strip women like Sarah and Edith of their independence. The soothing language is meant to manipulate them into giving up sovereignty over their own mind and body. By finding adoration and security from the group, Sarah gives into the system, despite her internal conflict. She is forced to adopt this collective dogma rather than create her own conclusions from lived experiences.
Sarah does not attempt to escape even when she is stripped of her apartment, isolated from friends and family, or when Jerry forces her to marry another resident. Sarah does not react to these violations until Lisa is trapped by the same cult. Sarah tries to convince her to accept this new system, but Lisa tells her, “You just found a new daddy to run your life for you,” meaning Jerry. Sarah snaps out of her passive state when she realizes Lisa will receive a worse punishment. For the first time in the film, two women are genuinely helping each other, rather than suppressing their freedoms and self-confidence for the sake of some patriarchal guru. It’s possible that Sarah was biding her time, waiting for the right moment, but also, she had lost her self-identity. Seeing Lisa in a similar predicament, gave her the strength to defend the only person who believed in her. When she decides to fight back, refusing to give into this system any longer, she knows risking death is better than remaining in a life of servitude. This is often the sentiment behind women who refuse to be trapped by society’s oppressive standards that hinder their search for creativity, which does not align with the patriarchy.
Women have often found themselves in less than ideal situations, settling for housing options that force them to abandon their freedom or put their life at risk. We are constantly reminded of the dangers of the world, especially when moving out. But it does not necessarily mean we should live with fear our whole life, though we probably should stay away from clingy neighbors and apartment complexes named “Asylum by the Sea.” 1BR lives out this cautionary tale of how finding an apartment in a new city can be an actual nightmare. But it also shows a female protagonist, one that was deemed too shy to fight back, able to survive. Sarah regains her sense of power at the end of the movie, as she escapes, realizing that this cult is only a small part of a larger system.
It’s frustrating to learn that the community Sarah finds is nothing more than a cult based on a false ideology and a patriarchal system. For some, this may be reminiscent of how it feels to deal with a strict male boss, an overbearing father figure, or a male-dominated community. The film brings a poignant reality to surface, albeit in an extreme way, showing our acceptance of the patriarchy despite their abhorrent nature at the expense of personal freedom. We readily accept many of these systems that are imbued with dogmatic and antagonistic tendencies like, religion, capitalism, procreation, sense of worth through wealth and productivity, since they are disguised as “part of society.” In our effort to maintain security and acceptance in society, we do not always question how these systems impact our conditioning, and in what ways we are limited as women.
