You never really luck into a community that you love. It’s rare. There are always weird neighbors. Loud dogs. Screaming children. Smokers. Drug users. AND CATS!
However, there is one community in LA that has none of that. Everyone is cordial. Everyone is pleasant. And everyone is just a hair “off.”
Welcome to Asilo Del Mar, where Sarah finds an amazing one bedroom apartment. Every neighbor seems nice and she can’t believe it. You see, Sarah is escaping an uncomfortable situation. Her dad’s a dick. He cheated on her mom when she fell prey to cancer and was suffering. And he has now moved on to his mistress.
So Sarah (Nicole Brydon Bloom) just wants to get away, away from him and his new love interest, and focus on herself, her costuming education, and her cat Giles.
Sarah’s problems in 1BR begin almost immediately as cats aren’t allowed at Asilo Del Mar. Once ensconced in her new place, she has to hide Giles. And suddenly, threatening messages begin to slide under her door. Nothing truly feels right.
What are those confounding noises in the unit next to her? If that weren’t enough, somebody begins entering her property while she sleeps.
This is where 1BR, written and directed by David Marmor, takes a dark turn. Given that all is not what it seems, Sarah is next in line to be indoctrinated, rather viciously, into this new community.
Soon, the pillars of Charles D. Ellerby’s book The Power of Community are forcibly imposed on Sarah by her neighbors through systematic violence and brainwashing.
She needs to be cleansed of her conditioning from the outside world where we often isolate, all of us locked in to our mobile devices. She needs to be shown the way: how to be an upstanding fellow citizen of this complex and its inhabitants.
What ensues is a horrific and unsettling trip down a gruesome rabbit hole as we learn the followers of Ellerby’s book live in these apartments, and have all been indoctrinated. If they choose to fight it, they are inevitably harmed.
Bloom as Sarah gives a convincing performance as the newest victim of this brainwashed community, followed by Taylor Nichols as Jerry, the main perpetrator of the community’s message. He continually forces his alarming methods onto Sarah to get her to give in to the “power.”
Susan Davis does a joyful spin as neighbor Miss Stanhope, an aging Hollywood actress who, in real life, has credits leading back to the golden days of Hollywood.
Also, fans of American Horror Story will recognize Naomi Grossman from her stint when she played Pepper on both its “Asylum” and “Freak Show” seasons. She is given more to do here as Jerry’s wife Janice, another fervent believer in the community’s dastardly pillars.
Finally, Celeste Sully gives an electric performance as Sarah’s innocent coworker Lisa who too falls prey to the residents of Asilo Del Mar. She and Sarah must confront them mano a mano in the end.
Just how pervasive is this community’s message? Well, watch 1BR to see who wins out. And, if you live on the second floor of a lovely two-story apartment with a cat, prepare to succumb to 1BR’s power.
1BR is currently streaming on Netflix as of this writing.
