Synopsis:

This is a refined fanfix of Steven Soderbergh's "Unsane" that is more fully committed to the question at the centre of the film - is Sawyer delusional, or is her stalker working at the healthcare facility where she is being held for observation? This is achieved primarily by sticking to Sawyer's point of view wherever possible.

Intentions:

The theatrical edit of Unsane has a B-movie plot of the sort that Hitchcock could do wonderfully, but the execution is inconsistent, and fully unravels in the third act. Foy's performance is great and the core concept is strong, but throughout the film there are several indications of what's really going on that undermine the film's ambiguity too early. My goal with this edit is to amplify the ambiguity of the question of whether George Shaw is actually David Strine or not.

Change List:

As much as possible, I have tried to mimic the style of editing used within the film as I feel this is the best way to make my changes invisible to the viewer. This means generally hard cuts between scenes rather than crossfades or montages, and very few establishing shots. J- and L- cuts are used on occasion, which combined with a passably clean centre channel did make creating new transitions a little easier. At certain points I have had to create "new" establishing shots by re-using existing footage and applying changes to disguise the reuse (flopping, reversed footage, brightness/contrast changes etc). These were integrated into the surrounding footage by matching the audio transitions and video cuts as closely to other similar cuts in the film as practical.

Additional Notes:

Removed opening scene with David's monologue in the forest. Moved Matt Damon safety consultation to serve as a cold-open. Applied changes to colour balance, brightness & contrast to all scenes up until Sawyer is inside the Highland Creek building - the intention is to create a contrast between Sawyer's perceptions when outside Highland Creek and once she is inside. Removed lengthy shot cutting back to George/David after he has shown her the envelope with her mother's address. Cut George/David visiting Sawyer's mother at her motel. Cut George/David discussing Sawyer's medication mixup with Nurse Boles. Removed on-the-nose shots of George/David monitoring Sawyer and Nate in the dorm. Removed shot of George/David watching Sawyer & Nate on the terrace, inserted external shot of Highland Creek to imply passage of time between scenes. Removed George/David capturing Nate & torture montage, reworked audio so that scene goes from Sawyer fighting with Violet to waking up in the isolation room. Removed scene of jogger finding George Shaw's corpse. Removed scene of police determining that the corpse in the park is George Shaw. Removed scene of Highland Creek staff finding Nate's notebook and passing it to management. Reworked confrontation in the isolation chamber so that Sawyer just escapes after stabbing George/David in the neck, without seeing him snap Violet's neck. Her flight from the isolation chamber and arrival into the lot out back is intercut with a shortened sequence of Nurse Boles receiving a message, seeing the news story about Nate's death on TV, and the police arriving with the warrant. This then segues into the police search finding Nate's notebook, prompting the arrest of the hospital administrator. Removed George/David recapturing Sawyer and the confrontation in the forest.

Other Sources:

Special Thanks: