Rachel
2019 · 10m · USA
Directed by Andrew DeYoung
Genres: dark comedy, drama
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, tense
An uninvited oddball named Rachel materializes at a low-key L.A. party and refuses to leave, slowly poisoning the vibe as guests scramble to figure out who the hell she actually is. Written by Kate Berlant, John Early, and DeYoung — which tells you exactly what kind of social humiliation you're in for.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Berlant and Early co-writing a cringe siege on the L.A. creative class — yeah, I'm in. The premise is just 'someone weird won't leave,' which is the only horror that actually works on me.
The Berlant/Early/DeYoung trinity weaponizing party-guest awkwardness into slow-cooked dread is a near-guaranteed pleasure — Tim Robinson crossed with passive-aggressive Sundance dramedy. Yes.
The Berlant/Early/DeYoung writing trinity weaponizing party-guest awkwardness — an uninvited oddball who refuses to leave and slowly poisons the vibe — is the platonic ideal of LA-creative-class horror-comedy. Casting alone is a buy signal.
Reviews
A hilariously creepy portrait of a strange evening in the lives of a group of L.A. creatives.