''Jagged Mind'' is a 2023 American

psychological horror Psychological horror is a genre, subgenre of horror fiction, horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and Mental state, psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre freque ...

thriller Thriller may refer to: * Thriller (genre), a broad genre of literature, film and television ** Thriller film, a film genre under the general thriller genre Comics * ''Thriller'' (DC Comics), a comic book series published 1983–84 by DC Comics i ...

film directed by

Kelley Kali Kelley Kali is an American director, actor, writer, and producer. She is the creator of the 2021 indie film ''I'm Fine (Thanks for Asking)'', which has won several awards in the film festival circuit. Other directing credits include ''Lalo's Hous ...

and written by Allyson Morgan, based on her 2020 short film ''First Date''. It stars

Maisie Richardson-Sellers Maisie Richardson-Sellers is a British actress and director. She first gained recognition for her role as Rebekah Mikaelson / Eva Sinclair on The CW series '' The Originals''. She has since gained wider recognition for her starring roles as Kat ...

and

Shannon Woodward Shannon Marie Woodward is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Sabrina Collins on the Fox sitcom '' Raising Hope'' (2010–2014), Elsie Hughes on the HBO science-fiction thriller series ''Westworld'' (2016–2018), and the ...

. The film premiered at the

American Black Film Festival The American Black Film Festival (ABFF), originally called the Acalpulco Black Film Festival, is an independent film festival that focuses primarily on black film and works by black members of the film industry. The festival is held annually in ...

on June 14, 2023, and was released in the United States on

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

the following day. It was released internationally on

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

via the

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content hub.

Premise

After Billie begins dating a mysterious woman named Alex, she suddenly becomes plagued by blackouts and strange visions that lead her to discover she's stuck in a series of

time loop The time loop or temporal loop is a plot device in fiction whereby Character (arts), characters re-experience a span of time which is repeated, sometimes more than once, with some hope of breaking out of the cycle of repetition. Time loops are co ...

Cast

as Billie *

as Alex *

Rosaline Elbay Rosaline Elbay (; ) is an Egyptian stage and screen actress, producer and writer. She is known for her roles as Judy Goodwin on the Netflix series ''Kaleidoscope (American TV series), Kaleidoscope,'' Amani on the Hulu/A24 Films series Ramy (TV se ...

as Christine * Shein Mompremier as Rose * Kate Szekely as Kim *

Jimmy Jean-Louis Jimmy Jean-Louis (born August 8, 1968) is a Haitian actor and producer. Born in Pétion-Ville, he moved to Paris at a young age with his family in search of a better life. His early roles were in French television commercials and Spanish musical ...

as Papa Juste * Casey Ford Alexander as Dr. Ortiz

Production

''Jagged Mind'' is based on writer Allyson Morgan's short film ''First Date'', that aired on season one of the

series '' Bite Size Halloween'' (2020). Produced by

20th Digital Studio 20th Digital Studio (also known as 20th Digital, formerly known as Fox Digital Studio and Zero Day Fox) was an American web series and web films production company of 20th Century Studios. Founded in 2008 as a digital media, it was a subsidiary o ...

and Palabra Productions as a Hulu original film, it is directed by

from a screenplay by Morgan.

and

portray new girlfriends, Billie and Alex, respectively. Filming took place in the

Little Haiti Little Haiti (, ), is a neighborhood of Miami, Florida, United States. It is known historically as Lemon City, Little River and Edison. It is home to Haitian immigrant residents, as well as residents from the rest of the Caribbean. The area i ...

neighborhood of

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

. Jongnic Bontemps composed the film's score.

Release

''Jagged Mind'' premiered at the

on June 14, 2023. It was released in the United States on

the following day and was released on

(via

) internationally.

Reception

The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' Noel Murray asserted "Even without its paranormal elements, ''Jagged Mind'' is a powerful portrait of the dissociation that occurs when a person tries to justify the misbehavior of someone they love." Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya of ''

Autostraddle Autostraddle is a queer and trans-owned online magazine and social network for lesbian, bisexual, and queer women ( cis and trans), as well as non-binary people and trans people of all genders. The website is a "politically progressive queer fem ...

'' said, "While imperfect in some of its plotting, ''Jagged Mind'' is delicious in its thematic underpinnings, execution of horror (with evocative editing and directing on this front), and performances. Richardson-Sellers and Woodward (both queer IRL btw) are electric scene partners, and Woodward makes an extremely compelling villain. The script could have easily tilted into Lifetime original movie territory if not for the direction and these performances." Paul Lê from ''

Bloody Disgusting Bloody Disgusting is an American independent multi-media company, which began as a horror genre-focused news website specializing in information services that covered various horror media. The company expanded into other media including podcast ...

'' gave the film a rating of three out of five, saying, " hefilm is often compelling and tense, the two leads deliver strong and vulnerable performances, and the outcome is rewarding. Supporters of queer filmmaking will be enthused to see not only a new genre story where the central conflict has nothing to do with sexuality issues, and the characters are layered and imperfect." Randy Myers writing for ''

The Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidia ...

'' gave the film a score of one and half out of five, saying "An under-realized screenplay fails all involved, particularly lead Maisie Richardson Sellers. She gives it her all as Billie, a queer woman with a rotten streak with women. She also blacks out and finds herself stuck in a ''

Groundhog Day Groundhog Day (, , , ; Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia: Daks Day) is a tradition observed regionally in the United States and Canada on February 2 of every year. It derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if ...

''-like loop. Therein lies the plot problem, ''Jagged Mind'' repeats its scenes too often, making it feel like this originated as a short film that got stretched into a feature."

References

External links

* * * * {{Hulu 2023 horror thriller films 2023 films 2023 LGBTQ-related films 2020s American films 2020s English-language films 2020s psychological horror films 20th Digital Studio films American horror thriller films American LGBTQ-related films American psychological horror films Features based on short films Films scored by Jongnic Bontemps Films shot in Miami Horror film remakes Hulu original films Lesbian-related films LGBTQ-related film remakes LGBTQ-related horror thriller films Remakes of American films Time loop films English-language horror thriller films 2020s films about time travel