Unsane--My take on the movie with spoilers!

PLOT SUMMARY: Sawyer is involuntarily committed to a mental institution. Once there, she is sure that her stalker is masquerading as a staff member. But is she right?

It is believed that we are in this world to form relationships, to find friendship and love. Basically, we are meant to connect with people.

Yes, being in relationships and having fun with friends is a wonderful thing but every person has their own drama, a convoluted past, a behaviour pattern altered or formed because of it.

Unsane could have been about Sawyer’s unfortunate circumstances or was the movie really about David the stalker?

UNSANE Movie Plot 

The story begins with Sawyer living a normal life. She has a steady job, has a good relationship with her coworkers, goes on dates, calls her mother every day, everything seems ordinary at first.

Then Sawyer goes on her first ‘dating app’ date and before she can become intimate with him, she suddenly pushes him away and runs into the bathroom to break down. We are now made to understand that Sawyer has trouble letting men getting close to her.

No time is wasted as in the very next scene, Sawyer is determined to heal herself and talk to a counsellor. That is when things spiral out of control for her. She is involuntarily admitted into the centre and put on a 24-hour watch that turns into seven days when she attacks the other patients and slaps a staff member, claiming he’s the stalker she ran away from in Boston.

At this point, we wonder if Sawyer is simply paranoid. That would seem like an elaborate plan concocted by David to get close to her despite a restraining order.

He claims he is George and the facility has run a background check on him. Sawyer insists they have got it wrong and checked for George, not David.

Of course, no one believes her, not even the viewer. Sawyer had it all together and now she slaps an orderly randomly? We assume that she has lost it at some level. Still, we do care for her plight.

As a tangent, there is another storyline, that of Nate, another patient who confides in Sawyer about being undercover. His theory is that these types of medical centers purposely admit people into their care when they find out they have insurance. The insurance keeps paying until they run out of money and then the patients are “magically cured”.

He’s also the only one with the cellphone which Sawyer uses to contact her mother who visits but disappears soon after. However, at this point, we are shown that George is indeed David and has done away with Sawyer’s mother, Nate and mixed Sawyer’s medications.

Sawyer is put in confinement when she screams at the orderlies and nurses to believe her. Of course, no one does. In a padded cell, David finally comes clean and admits he’s obsessed with her because she was so sweet and kind when she took care of her father at the hospice.

Sawyer, disturbed by his interference and obsessive texts, files a restraining order and flees the city. David claims he did whatever he could to get her back, even kill the real George.

Sawyer tries to play mind games with him, trying to convince him that he was in love with someone else and that she is very different from how he perceives her. David is adamant that he is the only woman he loves and will do anything for her to which Sawyer convinces him to get another woman patient in here with them. He does and Sawyer remembers her having a sharp metal piece. She steals it and stabs David in the neck with it and makes her escape. But the other patient is caught and he snaps her neck.

UNSANE Ending Explained with Spoilers! 

Sawyer runs away from the facility but is captured by David who somehow escaped the locked room and knows exactly which direction she ran to. He knocks her out and puts her in the trunk. Sawyer finds her mother in the body bag next to her and manages to unlatch the trunk and dive out.

David tries all he can to subdue Sawyer, even break her leg with a hammer, but she’s enraged and manages to stab him in the eye, then slit his throat.

Six months later, Sawyer has reclaimed her life, is promoted at her job, yet she hasn’t overcome her paranoia over David stalking her. She sees him in every man and picks up a knife to defend herself. Of course, David isn’t there but Sawyer keeps looking over her shoulder.

The question is, has this experience made her insane?

Unsane is definitely a gripping thriller, and it is also the actor’s capabilities that push the movie forward. The storyline is taut and no time is wasted to establish long backstories. The only tiny flaw would be the scenes where David’s true intentions are revealed. His parts could have been more terrifying, more cringe-worthy or make -you- sit -at -the- edge- of- the -seat thrilling.

David was obsessed, sick, a mindless killer. Somehow it feels like his character is held back to give the movie a safer rating. Because of that, the horror elements of the movie are a bit of a letdown.

The thrilling aspect, however, is good.

Scare scale: 3/5