DISQUIET
(director/writer: Michael Winnick; cinematographers: Mel Ward, Adam Sliinski; editor: Robert A. Ferretti; music: Rich Walters; cast: Jonathan Meyers Rhys (Sam), Rachelle Goulding (Dr. Lily), Eyse Levesque (Monica), Anita Brown (Sarah), Garry Chalk (Virgil), Lochlyn Munro (Frank), Trezzo Mahoro (Carter), Bradley Stryker (Gaunt Man), Andre Tricoteux (Orderly), Mila Jones (Little Girl), Ashleigh Kearns (Nurse); Runtime: 85; MPAA Rating: R; producer: Steven Paul; SP Media Group; 2025)
“I found its set designs nice and creepy.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Michael Winnick (“Dark Asset”/”Malicious”) directs and scripts this fantasy nightmare medical horror B-film, that comes with a predictable twist and much absurdity. It has biblical and literary references, which make the film look pretentious.
Sam (Jonathan Meyers Rhys) when distracted with his cell phone is a car crash victim hit by a drunk driver in a small truck, who dies immediately. Sam’s a workaholic who just started a tech start-up and is married to the pregnant Sarah (Anita Brown). He is operated in the emergency room of the local hospital and wakes up in a room that has no staff.
Surprisingly an elderly patient (Bradley Stryker) who was comatose in the next bed, awakens and attacks Sam for no reason. Sam fights him off before he mysteriously returns comatose again to his bed, only to vanish.
In a different room, the recently admitted to the hospital for breast enlargement cosmetic surgery is Monica (Eyse Levesque). She is attacked on the operating table while receiving anesthesia by three psycho women wielding scalpels. Sam comes to her rescue, and the three attackers flee after a fierce struggle.
Sam next runs into a wounded innocent convenience store Black thief, Carter (Trezzo Mahoro), shot by the white racist cop (Lochlyn Munro) at the store, who is chained to his bed. Sam frees him and the group try to leave the abandoned hospital, that has no phone service or WiFi or doors to leave the place.
The group is prevented from their search to leave by a burly orderly (Andre Tricoteux), mysterious sinister forces, and a fire from the fire exit. Sam’s patched up by Dr. Lily (Rachelle Goulding), who is subbing here for the first time, for an absent doctor. In another room Sam meets the elderly wheelchair-bound Virgil (Garry Chalk), named after the Roman poet guide through purgatory in Dante’s “The Divine Comedy.” The hospital becomes a state of limbo, as Dr. Lili guides the patients to the ground floor, which leads to hell, while Virgil guides them to the roof to perhaps get cell phone reception and is a place which leads to heaven in the after-world.
Meanwhile, the violent cop is enraged at seeing Carter, so he fatally shoots him.
I found its set designs nice and creepy, as the spooky hospital look alone made the pic unsettling. But if you wanted more from the film than how it looks, you just weren’t going to get it in this low-budget unsophisticated stab at making a sophisticated black comedy.
REVIEWED ON 6/3/2025 GRADE: C
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