Nothing is as it seems in director Rob Schroeder’s adaptation of screenwriter Conor Stechschulte’s graphic novel, Generous Bosom. What begins as an unsettling nightmare scenario switches gears abruptly to introduce a wholly different set of situations and characters. Ultrasound slowly unfurls its dizzying mystery, plunging viewers into the deep end of a disorienting tangled web. It’s a psychological sci-fi mystery box that requires patience and careful consideration of the details.

Glen (Vincent Kartheiser) gets a tire blowout that leads to a crash while driving home in the pouring rain. After getting out to assess the damage, he discovers a bed of nails planted in the middle of the road and a hotel food tray gently laid out on the side. Glen then finds a house near the site, where he’s welcomed inside by its friendly owner Arthur (Bob Stephenson) and his wife Cyndi (Chelsea Lopez). Glen, already disoriented by hitting his head in the crash, senses something deeply amiss about this situation. It culminates in a peculiar offer Glen can’t refuse. Then we meet Katie (Rainey Qualley), a young woman feeling gaslit by the high-profile man with whom she’s having an extra-marital affair. Elsewhere, Shannon (Breeda Wool) comes to suspect her experimental work at a research facility serves as a dangerous front.  

Schroeder creates an off-kilter tone meant to disorient from the opening scene. Everything about Glen’s encounter with the married couple feels straight out of a horror movie, right down to the way Arthur takes advantage of Glen’s concussed state to make him more pliable to his will. Yet subtle visual clues, like the food tray in the rain, signal that there’s a much larger picture at play. While the complete picture bides its sweet time in the unveiling, Schroeder intentionally builds a perplexing atmosphere to keep the viewer as confused as poor Glen.

Almost all of it serves a purpose. Subtle visual clues from the opening eventually receive a payoff, and the jarring transitions between plot threads converge with surprising revelations. Even then, Ultrasound refuses to hand-hold, keeping multiple steps ahead of the audience until the very end. The complexity and layer building is impressive. Perhaps most impressive is the way Schroeder makes you feel deeply entrenched in the chaos. A few details do emerge that are solely to flesh out characters, contributing nothing to the overarching narrative.

While Glen most closely represents the audience proxy as the prominent player trapped in the dark, Ultrasound is an ensemble piece. Each character is vital to this web of deceit and confusion. Stephenson toes the line perfectly between next-door neighbor charm and insidious manipulator. Wool’s character is integral to unpacking many of the questions, and her internal struggle with the morality of her work captivates. Wool offers the human element to ground the reality-bending sci-fi.

Ultrasound delivers a compelling mystery box through meticulous plotting, intentionally bewildering story shifts, and vibrant visual choices. But it’s a heady one that revels in subtlety, preferring to leave viewers in the dark for as long as possible. Even then, it’s abstract enough to leave you with lingering food for thought. That central question of what exactly is happening drives the entire film, however, which means you’re on its bizarre, cerebral wavelength or you’re not. If not, the methodical pacing might lose you along its winding path. But Ultrasound’s aesthetics and committed cast have a way of casting a hypnotic spell. 

Ultrasound had its World Premiere at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival.