‘Freelance’ Review: A Suspenseful Psychological Thriller About Editing Snuff
Though it’s not as disturbing as the premise suggests, Freelance is a smart and effective thriller.

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What is Freelance About?

Freelance takes a psychological, suspenseful approach to a story about a freelance video editor who unexpectedly finds herself editing snuff films.
Katie isn’t in the best place in life right now. Her work as a freelance video editor isn’t paying the bills, she’s about to get kicked out of her apartment, and she’s in a loveless relationship of convenience with a guy who annoys her (most people and things annoy her, actually). Desperate for money, Katie takes a job editing video from an unknown source that only communicates with her anonymously. The first video is disturbing, but the pay is good, so she agrees to continue. As she receives more footage to cut together, Katie starts to think that the violence and death she’s seeing is real. When she tries to back out of accepting further jobs, she might already be in too deep… and she has reason to believe she’s being watched.
Freelance was directed by John Balazs and written by Mike Gerbino. Nicole Pastor stars as Katie, Stephen Degenaro plays her clueless boyfriend Guy, and Jordan Fraser-Trumble is Katie’s editor friend Kevin.
Freelance Review

Freelance is a strong genre effort. It’s not as fun as something like Evil Ed (1995), and it’s not as gripping as something like Berberian Sound Studio (2012), but the themes are similar enough to be in the same conversation. Like those earlier films, Freelance is an entertaining look into the darkness that can seep into the mind of someone who is repeatedly exposed to violent images.

Interestingly, Freelance chooses to approach its main idea more as a psychological thriller than as a straightforward horror movie. We see Katie watching and reacting to what she believes is real violence, but we, as the audience, are mostly kept away from the gruesome imagery. We might see reflections of nastiness happening in Katie’s glasses, or get fleeting glimpses of the on-screen horrors she’s forcing herself to watch, but we never get the full impact of the mysterious videos she’s editing. The result is that the movie we’re watching never feels as dark and disturbing as it could be.

However, avoiding the more disturbing aspects of the videos is likely a deliberate choice made to keep the viewer locked into Katie’s subjective point of view. If we can’t clearly see the violence in the videos, then we can’t judge for ourselves whether they look real or not. We just have to trust Katie’s judgement, understanding that the movie isn’t really about snuff films, it’s about Katie’s reaction to what could potentially be a snuff film. It’s a distinction that might sound small, but the effect on the tone of the movie is significant. Whether that effect is good or bad is really dependent on how suspenseful and disturbing you want or expect the movie to be.

Personally, the focus on Katie’s subjective interpretation of the videos, as well as the inclusion of multiple dream sequences that mostly sweep away the idea of her actually being stalked by the mysterious filmmakers for a large part of the film, make the film less tense than I was hoping for. But I tend to gravitate towards disturbing horror over psychological suspense when given the option, so that’s just a personal preference. Freelance is very well made, and Nicole Pastor is excellent in the lead role as Katie.

That said, the movie probably could have dropped about twenty minutes and been even more effective overall. At 110 minutes, it did feel like the pace dragged after a while, especially in the final third of the story when it goes on some tangents that don’t necessarily have the impact they should. However, the finale is well done, making the journey to get there worth it even if some of the movie could have been trimmed.
Freelance Rating and Recommendation

Star Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Freelance is a good, dark character study of someone who finds herself in a horrible situation. The suspense is good, though some of the tension is undercut by the way it chooses to leave certain parts of Katie’s plight as too much of a mystery. It gets a strong recommendation for fans of suspense and psychological thrillers.
Freelance is currently streaming on TVOD platforms including Amazon Prime Video.