Ultrasound (Movie Review)

Ultrasound kicks off with a situation that sounds like something from a musty, old uncle joke. This guy Glen (Vincent Kartheiser) is driving home in a rainstorm late one night and, boom, out of nowhere he gets a flat tire. Luckily, there’s a house nearby where this affable middle-aged guy named Art (Bob Stephenson) answers the door. They have a drink while Glen dries off and eventually Art encourages Glen to go to the bedroom and climb into the bed with his younger wife Cyndi (Chelsea Lopez). Glen initially refuses, but Art won’t take no for an answer and after talking to Cyndi, Glen is sufficiently convinced that he’s wandered into some strange sexless marriage and maybe this is the rare case where sleeping with the guy’s lonely young wife isn’t the worst idea. That’s just the beginning of a story that only gets weirder as it doles out twists and reveals while keeping the viewer treading water in a near constant state of never knowing what to believe or what exactly is going on.

Ultrasound is based on a self-published comic by Conor Stechschulte under the awesome, if understandably-changed-for-the-movie title of Generous Bosom. The story of the film is told by multiple unreliable narrators and it delights in folding in on itself and recontextualizing and restaging earlier scenes. Trying to follow what’s going on can make your head swim at times and this is likely a movie that requires a second viewing to fully piece together, but most of the questions raised get a satisfactory enough answer so that by the end of the movie at least the general contours of what has taken place should be clear. It’s the kind of mind-bending dark sci-fi story that currently tends to show up as a streaming series like Devs, Twin Peaks: The Return or Archive 81 (all of which are close cousins of Ultrasound), and it’s not hard to imagine this story as a multiple episode limited series. Thankfully, Ultrasound avoids the problem many mystery box shows run into in which they struggle to fill time without tipping their hand as to the central mystery of the show. Clocking in at a tight 90 minutes, the headfuckery is sustained just long enough to be enjoyable without becoming fatiguing or annoying. 

Midway through the film it becomes clear that sound plays an important role in the film and synth-heavy score by Zak Engel fully engages with the idea of auditory manipulation. There are scenes where the score goes full Chris Nolan and overwhelms the dialogue and others where it creeps back to a low drone making everything feel just a little bit off. Eventually it becomes clear that the score is actively trying to mess with the viewer’s mind, just as characters in the movie are manipulating sound to mess with the minds of others.

Ultrasound lays its cards down so slowly and deliberately that it is the epitome of a movie that is best discovered via a word-of-mouth “no spoilers, just watch it” recommendation. Revealing anything that happens past the first ten minutes treads close to spoiler territory. There are few movie-watching experiences more satisfying than when a story has you on its hook and slowly reels you in, giving you just enough information to keep you engaged, even though you feel like you just barely understand what’s happening. Ultrasound delivers entirely on that experience and proves to be a terrific debut film from director Rob Schroeder.

Ultrasound releases in limited theaters and on VOD on Friday, March 11.