Freelance follows Katie, a video editor who takes a job editing snuff films and becomes haunted by visions of the people in the videos.
The flick does a good job of exploring the character early on, and giving the audience a sense of where she is at in life. This adds some credibility to her questionable decision making in the early stages. However, Freelance struggles to build tension in its early stages. Even with eerily creepy moments, the story as a whole didn’t amount to anything that kept me on edge. About one-fourth of the way through the film, however, this begins to change. The film shifts from simply visuals to truly threatening situations. This makes the conflict feel more grounded and horrifying.
Freelance is a very simple movie, one where the most impactful shots come from a computer screen or someone looking at it. It has the potential to deliver scares, but regulates most of its horror to nightmare sequences and paranoia. Katie’s fears and nightmares are what provide most of the tension in the flick, which is both rewarding and tiresome at times.
The film also delves into conversation about society’s desensitization to horrifying and graphic images online. While this is addressed, the messaging gets lost as the movie progresses.
Freelance ends at its most interesting point. The film goes in a variety of different directions over its 110-minute runtime, but never really has a focus. It highlights lesser important aspects, while minimizing the most horrifying and impactful. Because of this, the flick suffers from pacing issues. The middle portion especially begins to drag, before once again ramping up the intensity over the final 20 minutes. The finale of Freelance feels incomplete. This is frustrating, as it somewhat wastes a very interesting premise by not fully executing on it.
Freelance is entertaining in moments, but overstays its welcome with a longer than necessary runtime. The film also limits the most interesting parts of the story in exchange for unnecessary fluff. The cinematography, acting and score are all there to some degree — but the movie doesn’t come together as a whole.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
