Ultrasound Review: Puzzle Box Thriller Is Exhilarating, Unsettling, Frustrating

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Everyone loves a good mystery, especially one garbed in the robes of high-concept science fiction that delves into memory, the excesses of capitalism, and unjustified power dynamics. Rob Schroeder’s Ultrasound unfolds like an intriguing puzzle box thriller, an almost unsolvable Russian doll with infinite layers, managing to keep audiences on the edge of their seats for the most part. Unbearably tense at times, Ultrasound executes its high-brow sci-fi concept with ease, while some unanswered threads can make it a frustrating watch.

Ultrasound opens in a rather genre-telltale manner, wherein a man named Glen (Vincent Kartheiser) is stranded on the road while it pours heavily. Unbeknownst to him, something nefarious is underfoot  — spikes were specifically placed on the road to puncture his tires. Seeking shelter in the only house for miles, Glen is at the mercy of strangers Art (Bob Stephenson) and his wife Cyndi (Chelsea Lopez), who are overly friendly in a rather unsettling way. Glen, of course, is too naive to notice these signs and ends up drinking a bit too much with Art, and is somehow talked into sleeping with Cyndi after being incessantly urged by Art. These narrative choices do seem utterly strange, coming off as an elaborate scheme by the couple to entrap Glen in a pregnancy situation, but this is where Ultrasound starts peeling away its many, many layers.

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Glen is an obvious audience stand-in, unable to parse the mere surface of the conspiracies that surround him, and matters are complicated when Cyndi becomes pregnant right after. However, things become increasingly murky as the film progresses: a group of scientists whose research directly