1BR (2019)-- My take on the movie with spoilers!

PLOT SUMMARY: Sarah moves into a new apartment not realizing her friendly neighbours have a hidden agenda for her. 

Let’s face it, some of us have always dreamed of escaping whatever is going on in our lives and starting anew somewhere far away from where the people are less complicated, and you have a place to call home.

Sometimes it is a situation we want to escape. Sometimes it is the people in our lives, family members especially.

In our fantasies, everything works out. Nice people, an amazing home, a stable way to earn money.

But if you stop to think about it, can such a place and situation exist?

What are the chances that this new city will be everything we are looking for? That the job will have you working with helpful people? That the house will have no problems at all and the neighbours are like your second family?

What is the probability of getting all this in one go?

1BR Movie Plot

The movie starts off with a group of neighbours having a barbecue party in their complex. They are all smiling and waving at an unknown person. Each of them is helping the other with something of the other. Everyone is just so nice.

Cut to the next scene, and we meet Sarah. She attends an open house and meets with Jerry who asks her a few questions, one of which is if she has pets.

Sarah, desperate to get the 1BR which is seemingly perfect in every way, says no.

We see her the night before in her pyjamas in a motel room, checking out apartments for rent. Her cat is roaming all around her. She gets a call from her father who tells her she will be unable to do it all on her own and needs to come home after the disagreement they had.

Sarah cuts the call and clicks on an ad for an apartment. She is determined to show her father that she is capable to start life afresh.

She’s at work when she meets her colleague Lisa who doesn’t seem to care about anything. She, however, becomes friends with Sarah.

Just then she gets the call that she got the apartment. Excited, Sarah moves in immediately and is careful to hide her cat. She meets her neighbour, Brian, who is charming and helpful. He introduces her to the other neighbours and takes her down to a small get together they are all having.

Sarah helps an elderly woman Mrs Stranhope and is immediately praised for being so kind. She meets with Jerry and his wife Janice who is very friendly. They tell her that the neighbours are like a family and always help each other out.

She is then approached by a man who wears glasses wherein one lens is dark and the other clear. He pretty much pushes a book to her face about Community and asks her to read it.

Sarah declines and moves away, keeping an eye on Brian.

Later that night, she finishes her sketches of a new dress and gets into her sleeping bag. With the lights out, the only thing she sees is the fire alarm overhead blinking red.

She hears a dull thudding noise but imagines someone is moving furniture. The next day, she realizes she has run out of her pills. She's pushing a mattress to her apartment while asking for her prescription to be refilled when Brian pops out at that very moment and helps her, though Sarah makes sure he doesn't enter her apartment and see the cat.

Later that night in her new bed, she hears more annoying sounds and heads to the door to see what is going on. She sees Mrs Stranhope walking by and rushes over to help her as she stumbles. She takes her to her apartment and makes sure she takes her medication, even promising to fill her prescription box each week. At her home, she sees a book that Lester had initially offered her and learns that he had lost his wife to cancer recently which is why he's behaving creepily.

When the next day, she receives a notice about pets not being allowed, along with a P.S. in red paint about being stupid enough not to know that people could be allergic to cats, she opens the door but sees her regular neighbours and Lester skulking In the shadows. Brian asks her to come to a dinner party he is hosting.

She goes to her office and is scolded by her boss Christina. Lisa offers to cheer her up and they decide to order Thai food and eat at Sarah's new apartment.

She's walking up the stairs to her new home with Lisa when Brian pops out again. This should have been a clear indication to her that something was weird about Brian always coming out the same time she's passing by, but Sarah is too smitten with him to notice. He asks her to join him but she says she has other plans. She even refuses to come for dessert later.

At the apartment, Sarah complains more about her father not being supportive too which Lisa reminds her that it is “her f***ing life”.

Lisa offers to become roommates and Sarah seems to seriously be considering moving out.

Later that night, Sarah is asleep when she sees more shadows. It is when she smells something burning that she freaks out and rushes to the kitchen. On top of the stove is the same notice against keeping pets in the apartment.

Sarah now understands what is really cooking in her oven. She opens to confirm and screams when she sees the remains of her cat. She sees someone moving into her apartment and is knocked over. She assumes it is Lester but the lights come on and it is Brian, nonchalantly putting up his doctor’s bag and removing injections and drugs.

Sarah is tied to the chair but she manages to break free by breaking the IKEA chair. She rushes out and runs into another neighbour who does nothing to help her. Brian appears and subdues her by injecting her with a drug.

Sarah awakens to find herself in an empty room wearing green scrubs. The windows are boarded and she calls for help.

In walks Jerry and Brian revealing that they’ve severed all her connections for her and that no one will ever come looking for her. Why are they doing this to her?

It’s because she’s selfish and hid a cat from neighbours that could possibly be allergic to it. Sarah’s worst crime is that she keeps thinking about what she wants when she should be thinking about others.

Rather than making up with her father, she should be having dinner parties with her neighbours.

Jerry states an experiment that will help Sarah become part of a community. She has to keep both hands on the wall and stretch her arms. She must remain in that position until the lights go out after which she can take a break, use the bedpan and drink and disgusting smoothie.

Sarah knows it is futile to resist, so she does exactly as said. When she collapses later, her hands are nailed to the wall.

Sarah begins to go berserk. She hallucinates her father calling for her and telling her to rip her hands out of the wall and come to him. She even imagines sunlight pouring into the room.

Sarah does exactly that and screams as she pulls her hands out of the nails. Of course, her father isn’t there and of course, the room didn’t magically break so she could escape. She collapses.

When she awakens, she becomes a zombie, doing what she is told over and over until Jerry comes in and embraces her, telling her she’s ready.

Sarah just wants a hug at this point so she hugs her captor back.

1BR Ending Explained with Spoilers! 

We are shown the first scene again and now know it is Sarah who was being shown around. She has assimilated in her new environment, though Jerry and Brian regularly subject her to lie detector tests.

She is made to reveal personal information as well as answer whether she wants to be part of the community.

She says yes and they know instantly she’s lying. Of course, she would be. After all, who would say they want to live here forever after being starved and tortured.

Jerry and Brian know that as well that what they are doing is so twisted that it will require a little torture before anyone would want to live with them.

Sarah is given the responsibility to monitor everyone and realizes that every single room in the apartments is monitored, including bathrooms. She notices a camera focused on her and wonders who is watching the people who are supposed to be watching the others.

She notices Mrs Stranhope collapse and informs Brian. Later, the elderly woman is safe but Jerry and Brian inform Sarah that she must be put to sleep as her time with this community have come to an end. Sarah offers to take care of the woman but it is obvious that the community is built not on people taking care of each other but only throwing parties. And if one of them falls sick and is too much of a burden to take care of, they are killed.

Mrs Stranhope is brainwashed into agreeing to be gassed.

To celebrate her death, Jerry announces that he is decided to reward Sarah for taking care of the woman as well as finally starting on the lie detector test that she doesn’t know if she wants to live with the psychos.

She is told that Lester’s wife Jessica was just as caring as she and must now take her place. Sarah is appalled to learn that she is being coupled with him. All this time she had been attracted to Brian but after he turned weird, there was little chance she was going to have a relationship with him.

Sarah finds she is also moving in with Lester. Before he can take her to bed, Jerry informs her that her father has shown up and she must get rid of him.

Sarah pretends she wants nothing to do with her father because Brian is in the next room ready to kill him if she doesn’t get rid of him.

Her father leaves and Brian hugs Sarah as she weeps. This is their community: they will hug you if you behave terribly with your family and cut all ties with them.

Sarah joins Lester who has brought in her sewing machine, showing he’s going to be supportive of her dreams.

Sarah goes about her life but one day is stunned to find Lisa coming into the open house.

Apparently, Lisa had liked the apartment after all. She knew Sarah, the girl who insulted her, must live there still but decides she wants it anyway.

Jerry hands over the keys and the cycle starts. Lisa fights back and bites Brian’s ear off when she’s put into the torture room.

Jerry sends in Sarah to placate her but Lisa insults her by saying she’s not taking control of her life. Sarah awakens from her zombie state when she realizes it is her life. She helps Lisa when Jerry comes in to lobotomize her. She uses the screwdriver on Jerry and escapes with Lisa only to reach a few feet before Jerry gets up and shoots Lisa.

Sarah manages to stab Jerry several times before escaping with his gun. Janice is appalled that she killed Jerry but Sarah doesn’t care. Brian tells her that she won’t be able to kill anyone because of community love and stuff. Sarah shoots him immediately.

She keeps telling the people to escape with her because they’ve been brainwashed, but being used to regular parties, the people refuse to leave.

Lester helps her escape just as Sarah is caught by the neighbours. He pushes her outside before shooting himself, unable to take any more community love.

Sarah runs but realizes that no one is chasing her. She feels free before noticing similar real estate signs on the next block. She looks up at the entrance and spots a camera. An alarm goes off.

The buildings next to it also raise an alarm. Sarah realizes the whole street is filled with houses of people brainwashed into having parties every day.

She still runs, hoping she will come to a street without wackos.

The story was chilling and watching Sarah give in to her torture because she knew no one would come to save her was heartbreaking.

The only thing that doesn’t make sense is Lisa coming to the same building where Sarah lived especially when she didn’t seem that enthusiastic about the building or being around Sarah after their friendship breaks.

Maybe she got a really good deal?

Scare scale: 3.5/5