1BR is a Horror Thriller Movie by David Marmor.
Sarah (Nicole Bryan Bloom) is an aspiring fashion designer with a strained relationship with her father (Alan Blumenfield), who's recently moved to Los Angeles. She manages to find a livable apartment filled with a friendly Close-Knit Community who make her feel very welcome. The only real flaw she finds is how noisy the pipes are at night.
One day, after she realizes she missed a party she was to attend at the apartment, she soon finds herself learning that the tenants are harbouring a dark secret: they take the closeness they all enjoy VERY seriously, and don't like it when people try to leave. Soon enough, Sarah finds herself being cut off from the outside world, and slowly brainwashed into being just as into their togetherness as they are.
The movie was released on July 18th, 2019.
1BR contains examples of:
- Apartment Complex of Horrors: The movie is about a woman named Sarah moving into a seemingly perfect apartment building where all the tenants behave like a Close-Knit Community, always doing everything together and enjoying each other's company. Then we find out that they value that closeness to the point they won't let anyone leave, and effectively brainwash all new tenants into becoming new members.
- Blood from the Mouth: One tenant who gets repeatedly slapped by all the others has a bit of blood coming out of the side of his mouth when Sarah slaps him.
- Bolivian Army Ending: Sarah escapes the complex at the end, heading out only to realize every complex nearby is part of the same cult and there are cameras watching her with alarms sounding. Still defiant, the film ends as she takes off running.
- Close-Knit Community: The residents of the apartment are this Played for Horror.
- Eye Scream: Lester had one of his eyes injured as punishment for an escape attempt.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Charles D. Ellerby, the psychologist who wrote the book that all the tenants adhere to so strictly. He was also the founder of the community in the apartment building.
- Handguns: Jerry pulls out a handgun, stating it's a "way to make [the pain of all the psychological torture] stop".
- Impaled Palm: When Sarah falls to the floor, unable to stay in the stress position, Brian "helps her stay up" by nailing her hands to the wall.
- I Was Quite a Looker: Edith shows Sarah the poster for an old movie she was in, showing she was rather pretty in her youth.
- Mysterious Note: A couple of days after moving in, a note is slipped under Sarah's door telling her she's violating the "No Pets" policy that the building has (she smuggled her cat into it), which also has something like "SOME TENANTS ARE ALLERGIC YOU SELFISH BITCH" written on it in red.
- No Animals Allowed: Sarah smuggles her cat in and she gets a business-like notification of violating the policy plus a nasty note. They enforce it with a vengeance. Poor kitty.
- One-Word Title: 1BR, naturally.
- Serious Business: All the tenants in the apartment building value their community above all else. They will psychologically torture new tenants, isolate them from the outside world, and burn all of their bridges to make sure that they stay and join the community.
- Sinister Surveillance: The tenants all have a security system that's watching them at all times, that they take turns manning.
