Andrew is Under House Arrest
2026 · 7m · United States
Directed by Thomas Ryan
Tones: contemplative, dark, tense
Andrew is under house arrest — and he likes it that way, needing no one and wanting nothing from the outside world. One night someone arrives at the house, and Andrew begins to doubt just how good his situation is… but part of him isn't going to take no for an answer.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A seven-minute inversion of every rescue narrative — the prisoner doesn't want saving, the intrusion is the threat, and the real horror is being *wanted*. Ryan finds the perverse appeal in isolation and turns it into something genuinely unsettling that most scouts would reflexively reject.
The film's restraint and formal control recall the psychological precision of early Haneke, with careful attention to spatial geography and the grammar of refusal; it situates itself thoughtfully within the thriller lineage while resisting easy catharsis.
The decision to play Andrew's resistance not as desperation but as genuine preference — a specific tonal choice in performance and editing that could've read as implausible — is what makes the whole premise breathe and lands the film's darkest implications.