The opening film at this year’s Tubi Frightfest London, Nervous is an ambitious psychological thriller set in the South Korean countryside. Irish actress Sarah Bolger reunites with director Abner Pastoll after the success of 2019’s A Good Woman is Hard to Find, which closed the same festival that year, to spin the unnerving tale of a woman who accompanies her Korean husband back to his homeland, in a desperate effort to save their failing marriage, only to lose the ability to hear men.

Moving into an empty and isolated house in the countryside, far from the urban sprawl of Seoul, Sarah (Bolger) and Sungsoo (Sungsoo Yune, Smugglers) experience a series of strange and unsettling events. First their furniture has not been delivered, then they discover an injured and dishevelled woman on their balcony who appears to have been squatting there.

Things only get worse when Sungsoo unearths an old-timey hand-cranked record player in the attic. The accompanying vinyl at first appears to play only silence, but soon after listening to it, Sarah loses the ability to hear her husband’s voice. “A dream come true,” quips one character upon hearing about Sarah’s condition, but for Pastoll, it is a stylistic hook upon which to hang a rather unique exploration of unbalanced gender roles.

Read my full ScreenAnarchy review here