Control Freak (2025) is a psychological horror film that follows Valerie Nguyen, a charismatic motivational speaker whose life spirals into chaos under the weight of a sinister curse and deep-seated generational trauma. What begins as a relentless itch on her scalp soon festers into an all-consuming obsession, unraveling her grip on reality. As Valerie’s hallucinations grow more intense, long-buried family secrets claw their way to the surface, forcing her to confront a past she never truly understood. Blending supernatural terror with raw psychological depth, Control Freak delivers a haunting exploration of inherited suffering and the desperate fight to break free from its grasp.
This article contains spoilers.
Control Freak (2025) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
The film opens with a montage of Valerie Nguyen, a successful motivational speaker, addressing a crowd. Soon, Valerie struggles to breathe underwater while tending to an itch at the back of her head. The motivational talk is about the voice inside our head that holds us back from reaching our potential. At home, Valerie has sex with her husband Robbie. Later, Robbie hands over a letter Valerie has received from her estranged father, Sang. It is soon Valerie’s mother’s death anniversary, and the letter is about that.
While swimming, Valerie is reminded of a boat ride she took as a child with Sang and her mother. Bad news awaits Valerie as Crystal (the employee handling everything for Valerie) tells Valerie that China requires Valerie to produce a birth certificate. If Valerie does not get it, they may have to cancel or reschedule the China/Asia tour.
What ails Valerie, and what is she hallucinating about?
However, Valerie is unwilling to make any changes to the tour. The itch on Valerie’s head gradually increases. Valerie thinks about calling Sang to ask about the birth certificate but drops the idea immediately. At night, Valerie starts to look up the reasons for uncontrollable itching as she finds it unbearable. The internet search scares Valerie rather than helping her.
The next day, Robbie shows Valerie their promo video for the tour, and Valerie is unhappy with a lot of things. So Robbie asks Valerie not to obsess about every frame as they don’t have much time to finish the editing. As Valerie meditates, she feels many hands trying to pull her in. Suddenly, Valerie senses a dark, black, creepy hand and comes out of her meditative state only to find a black ant on her pants.
Now, Valerie starts to see things. She notices ants crawling up a hole in the wall. Instead of calling Sang, Valerie calls her aunt Thuy and meets her in Thuy’s salon. Since Valerie moved and Sang became a monk, boxes are left in Thuy’s salon, and Valerie hopes to find her birth certificate there. There, Valerie realizes a box is missing, so Thuy says Sang has taken that box.
At home, Robbie consoles Valerie, saying they will have a baby soon, but Valerie is preoccupied with the upcoming tour. When Robbie asks Valerie to visit a doctor for the itch, Valerie brushes it off. While working, Valerie uses a ruler to scratch her itch and bleeds. The doctor asks Valerie to visit in person as sometimes these symptoms can be a result of psychological distress.
What does Valerie learn about her mother?
With a heavy heart, Valerie visits Sang at the monastery and asks about the missing box. In the room, Valerie sees a painting of a demon/curse called Sanshi and enquires about it. The word Sanshi translates to a hungry host, and during great calamity, Sanshi takes a human host and poisons them with insatiable urges. Slowly, Sanshi becomes strong and takes over the host’s body and soul. As Valerie listens to this, she gets lightheaded, so Sang steps out to fetch water. Returning to her senses, Valerie sneaks around the room and finds a key to a storage room. Without saying goodbye, Valerie leaves the monastery and drives to the storage. There, Valerie sees an album with old photos and her birth certificate.
By now, there is a wound on Valerie’s head from all the scratching, and Valerie starts to hallucinate often. Applying the advice Valerie gives to people, she begins to take control of her life. While looking at photos of her mother, Valerie notices bruises on her mother’s arms. During dinner, Robbie tries to console Valerie by explaining that whatever happened to her mother was an accident and that it wasn’t anyone’s fault. However, Valerie hates being branded as a victim, so Valerie and Robbie fight. Because of the fight, Valerie takes the couch and wakes up with a nightmare of coughing up an army of ants. Later, Valerie visits Thuy and asks what exactly happened to her mother. Thuy says that after the war, something had cursed Valerie’s mother, and despite trying her best, Thuy couldn’t save Valerie’s mother.
What information does Sang give Valerie about her life?
During the photoshoots for the tour, Valerie starts hallucinating that a hand takes control of her, and she begins to itch. In a panic, Valerie rushes to the washroom. As Valerie returns to the studio, she overhears Robbie expressing his concern to Crystal. Later at night, Valerie sleeps with Robbie to make up for what had happened during the shoot. While having sex involuntarily, Valerie hurts Robbie. When Robbie touches Valerie’s head, he is concerned seeing the blood on his hands. This causes them to fight again. At night, Valerie ties her hands so she does not scratch that itch. However, Valerie wakes up with a nightmare and scratches.
In the morning, Valerie assumes Robbie is on the couch and expresses how she feels, but he has already left. Once again, something takes over Valerie, and she starts breaking apart the wall when Sang comes over. After having tea together, Sang says Valerie is infected with the same curse (Sanshi) as her mother. If Valerie is not careful, she will end up like her mother. Despite the explanation, Valerie blames Sang for killing her mother. After Sang leaves, Valerie checks Sang’s bag, which is filled with newspaper articles. One of them says Sang was cleared of the murder charges. While watching the rain, Valerie recalls seeing her mother drown. So, Valerie visits Sang at the monastery to confront him.
Why is Valerie in the hospital?
There, Valerie finds drugs and blackmails Sang to come clean, or she will take the drugs to the Abbot. So Sang reveals that Valerie’s mother tried to kill Valerie as she knew Valerie is cursed as well. To save Valerie, Sang ended up killing Valerie’s mother. During the war, Sang was a soldier and had killed a girl who looked like a suicide bomber.
From the muddy puddle, a creepy black hand erupts. This is how Sang summoned the curse, which he passed on to Valerie’s mother and then to Valerie. However, Valerie is unwilling to believe Sang. Now, Valerie rushes to a venue as she is the speaker. As Valerie starts talking, something takes hold of her, making her act possessed. Immediately, Valerie rushes out to the monastery. There, Valerie finds Sang dead. So, Valerie pokes a hole in her skull to relieve pain. The next thing we know, Valerie is in the hospital.
At the hospital, Robbie does not understand how someone can scratch through to the skull. The doctors explain that Valerie has damage in the left hemisphere of the brain, leading to loss of motor control on the right side of the body. If cranial tissue is softened, it would have allowed Valerie to penetrate through the parietal bone. Even in the hospital, Valerie hallucinates. After a while, the doctors ask Valerie if she is seeing things, but Valerie says she isn’t. At home, Robbie ties Valerie’s hands so she does not scratch, but when they wake up, there are scissors next to Valerie, and Robbie is mad. Even though Valerie tries to explain what is happening to her, Robbie does not believe Valerie.
How does Valerie save herself from Sanshi?
Meanwhile, Valerie overhears Robbie talking to the doctors about Valerie’s mental health. That night, Valerie cooks a warm meal for Robbie and chats with him till he finishes. After a few bites, Robbie faints as Valerie has mixed something in the soup. Later, Valerie ties Robbie to the bed. Before leaving the room, Valerie plays one of her speeches. Setting up a space, Valerie speaks to Sanshi using many mirrors. Sanshi materializes and tells Valerie that it wants every piece of Valerie, not just Valerie but everyone. Taking a saw, Valerie cuts one of her wrists, but she does not die. Meanwhile, Robbie can hear the machines and tries to free himself.
Once again, Sanshi materializes, so Valerie asks for help cutting off her other wrist. As Sanshi pulls the saw closer, Valerie moves her hand and cuts Sanshi’s wrists. The fight ensues, and it looks like Valerie has destroyed Sanshi, but Sanshi recuperates and starts chasing after Valerie. In the room, Robbie has managed to free himself. Sanshi chases Valerie, and she is by the pool. Just like her mother, Valerie pulls Sanshi and jumps inside the pool. Underwater, Valerie realizes Sanshi is nothing but a parasite residing in her mind, and she is an easy host. As soon as Valerie realizes that she sees Sang and sees a younger version of herself. Coming to a realization, Valerie grabs her younger self and starts swimming to the surface.
Control Freak (2024) Movie Ending Explained:
Just then, Robbie arrives and saves Valerie. In Valerie’s hand, Robbie sees a baby, and Valerie says that it is her younger version. Soon, the baby disappears. A couple of weeks later, boxes are packed in the house, and Robbie is bathing. Suddenly, Valerie tells Robbie he does not need to stay for her, but she is pregnant. Valerie does not know what she is doing or was doing, but she knows she wants to become a parent with Robbie by her side. However, Valerie understands if Robbie does not want to stay. A few years later, Valerie is seen hanging out by a lake with her son. The severed hand is fixed, probably with surgery, and an ant crawls on Valerie’s son.
In the end, it seems like Valerie has defeated the curse of Sanshi—but not entirely. The final shot of an ant crawling on her son hints that the cycle isn’t completely broken. Robbie’s absence in the last scene suggests he may have left Valerie, unable to handle the weight of her unraveling reality. The lake, a place of painful memories where Valerie witnessed her mother’s death, carries heavy significance. It’s possible that she killed Robbie there, or perhaps she brought her son to the water’s edge to feel closer to her parents—echoing Robbie’s wish for their child to understand their history.
Sanshi isn’t just a malevolent entity; it’s the embodiment of trauma and mental illness. War fractures the mind, and when Sang first summoned Sanshi, it marked the beginning of his own psychological torment. Trauma doesn’t exist in isolation—it seeps into families, passed down like an unwanted inheritance.
Valerie’s struggle is more than just a supernatural curse; it’s the weight of generational trauma and her own deep-seated insecurities. Overcoming Sanshi means rising above those demons, both real and psychological. In the depths of the lake, Valerie confronts the truth and, in doing so, breaks part of the cycle—saving herself but not entirely shielding her son from what lingers. The persistent itch she scratches throughout the film symbolizes the way people try to address trauma on the surface, never truly digging deep enough to heal. For most of the film, Valerie is caught in that cycle—only in the end does she begin to break free.
