UNDOWN (2025)

🎬 Title: UNDOWN (2025)

Genre: Psychological Thriller | Drama | Mystery
Director: Ava Kessler
Writer: Damon Frey
Main Cast:

Florence Pugh as Emily Voss
Domhnall Gleeson as Dr. Adrian Hart
Tahar Rahim as Elias Monroe
Naomi Scott as Lena Rivers
Ciarán Hinds as Dr. Solomon Thorne

🧠 Plot Summary:

UNDOWN (2025) is a slow-burning psychological thriller that dives into the fragility of the human mind and the buried traumas that refuse to stay silent. Set in a near-future world recovering from a digital memory plague that erased years from people’s lives, the film follows Emily Voss, a young neurotherapist struggling with gaps in her own memory—gaps she was told were normal.

Working at The Thorne Institute, a remote and mysterious neurological facility designed to help trauma patients recover their lost memories, Emily begins treating a patient, Elias Monroe, a former software engineer who claims he knows her from a life she doesn’t remember.

As Elias's fragmented memories begin to mirror strange dreams and hallucinations Emily has been experiencing herself, she starts to question her own history—and the true nature of her work. Was her memory erased? Was it voluntary? Or was she a test subject in a far deeper, more dangerous experiment?

Her only clue is a word that keeps reappearing: “Undown”—a term Elias insists refers to a forbidden neural sequence that can unlock suppressed memories... or drive the mind to collapse.

As reality unravels, Emily is caught between her desire for the truth and the threat of a powerful entity willing to destroy anyone who seeks it. Her search leads her into hidden archives, encrypted brain scans, and confrontations with her former mentor Dr. Thorne, who may have been orchestrating more than just treatments.

🧩 Key Themes:

Memory vs. Identity: Who are we without our memories? What if our past was rewritten?
Control and Consent: Can science manipulate minds for good—or for control?
Truth and Paranoia: How much truth can a person handle before breaking?

🎭 Character Profiles:

Emily Voss (Florence Pugh) – A gifted, emotionally complex neurotherapist haunted by dreams of a life she doesn’t recall. Brave, intelligent, but deeply conflicted.
Dr. Adrian Hart (Domhnall Gleeson) – Emily’s colleague and confidant, whose loyalty becomes questionable as secrets unravel.
Elias Monroe (Tahar Rahim) – A former AI specialist suffering from fragmented memory and paranoia, claiming he once knew Emily before their minds were “reset.”
Lena Rivers (Naomi Scott) – A data archivist at the institute, caught between helping Emily and protecting her own survival.
Dr. Solomon Thorne (Ciarán Hinds) – The brilliant but ethically compromised founder of the Thorne Institute, whose work borders on psychological warfare.

🧠 Notable Elements:

Cinematic Style:
Cold, minimalist architecture paired with organic lighting and abstract dream sequences. Visual tone inspired by Ex Machina, Inception, and Stoker.
Sound Design:
A haunting, electronic score composed by Mica Levi, blending glitchy tones with dissonant strings and silent pauses that echo the fractured psyche.
Narrative Structure:
Non-linear storytelling, blending memory fragments, dreams, therapy sessions, and hidden recordings. Reality and perception are constantly in flux.