NERVOUS
****
Directed by Abner Pastoll.
Starring Sarah Bolger, Sungsoo Yune, Ko Asung.
Horror, South Korea, 100 Minutes.
Reviewed as part of Tubi FrightFest 2026
Tubi FrightFest 2026 kicked off in high style with director Abner Pastoll, returning to the festival for the first time since 2019 with his closing film A GOOD WOMAN IS HARD TO FIND. Despite reuniting with that film's leading actress Sarah Bolger, NERVOUS is a completely different beast from that Northern Irish crime thriller that seven years later is still socially relevant as ever. Now, we find Bolger as an ex-pat wife relocated across the world to South Korea, suffering from an extreme form of sensory misadventure.
Right from the off, it is apparent that Bolger’s character, Sarah, is feeling the strain of the move, further exacerbated by the new house she has moved into, a decision her husband Sungsoo has made without consulting her. Previously belonging to his aunt, Sungsoo believes the offer to move in is too good to pass up. Feeling on edge already, Sarah soon discovers an old fashioned phonograph record player and plays the only record available to hand. After a single spin, Sarah begins to suffer from a serious malady where she cannot hear male voices. This auditory curse is soon accompanied by visions of other women, with one in particular seemingly connected to a troubling missing persons case and others that stir up the long simmering resentment to her husband and her own dormant desires.
Pastoll is a director who has always seemed to challenge himself with covering new territory with each film, and NERVOUS is no exception. It could also be seen that this is his most ambitious film yet. Hallucinatory, in all senses, the film stretches itself into something new and strange at regular intervals: at one point it is a supernatural mystery, before shifting back to a relationship drama before jumping full-on to grisly body horror. A slippery film, it is, on its first viewing alone, maybe a little hard to fully get to grips with.
Subsequent rewatches will no doubt uncover the film's myriad mysteries that are left for the viewer to ponder over. Although enigmatic, this is a rewarding film. Ambitious and visually stylish it also makes great use of sound in a way so few films do, let alone horror films. The silences that Sarah suffers, are unnerving and help ratchet up not only the tension but the unease and isolation that Sarah suffers through. With an excellent performance from the underrated Bolger, NERVOUS is a slice of original horror that deserves to be seen and heard.
Iain MacLeod