Overview
Screwdriver is a 2023 psychological thriller film written and directed by Cairo Smith. It stars AnnaClare Hicks as Emily, a woman who returns to California after the collapse of her relationship and stays with her old high school friend Robert and his wife Melissa.
Most of the film takes place inside Robert and Melissa’s house, where hospitality, household order, biomedical language, and Robert’s guided exercises become tools of isolation and control. The story also connects Melissa’s work at Zygoprep to the couple’s reproductive hopes and to Emily’s worsening physical and psychological state.
Screwdriver is available through Prime Video.
Plot
Emily arrives at Robert and Melissa’s elegant California house with a worn suitcase after Sean leaves her. Robert presents himself as a kind old friend, while Melissa folds Emily into the household with food, wine, a Zygoprep smoothie, and physical attention that Emily does not fully welcome. Robert and Melissa agree that Emily may stay for a week, but their care quickly becomes structured around instructions, controlled meals, restricted movement, and Robert’s questions about Emily’s faith, art, childlessness, and relationship with Sean.
During Emily’s first full day in the house, she finds a photograph of Elouise, Robert’s teaching assistant, hidden in a textbook and briefly leaves the house alone to buy art supplies. Melissa reacts sharply to Emily’s unscheduled trip and confiscates her cigarettes and paintings. Robert then begins the first version of his chamber exercise, asking Emily to imagine a series of rooms, a speaking cigarette, and a glass-eyed cat that warns her a messenger will come to tempt her. Emily tries to leave, but Robert argues that she cannot safely decide in her present condition.
Emily becomes increasingly thirsty, sleepless, itchy, and disoriented. She overhears fragments of Robert’s conflict with a committee, receives intimate reassurance from Melissa, and undergoes a second chamber exercise in which Robert introduces a screwdriver on a pedestal and tells her that only the house with him and Melissa can protect her. When Sean arrives after receiving religious texts from Emily, she treats him as the predicted tempter and drives him away. Melissa reframes the incident as proof that evil has entered the house, while Robert and Melissa prepare a private celebration for Emily’s supposed progress.
The celebration turns into interrogation and violence after Emily admits Sean came to the house. Robert accuses Emily of betraying the household, Melissa attacks her, and Emily retreats to the bathroom. There she finds a screwdriver, wounds her left palm, and opens the locked medicine drawer, discovering prescription bottles with warnings that match her symptoms. Robert and Melissa break in, drag her away, and lock her in the dark guest bedroom. By morning, the house is restored to order, Melissa recasts the previous night as drunken self-harm, and Robert and Melissa offer Emily a train ticket out, a new phone, and a paid role as their household painter. Emily chooses to stay. The film ends with Emily, Robert, and Melissa together on a beach, with Emily curled against Melissa while Robert walks toward the shoreline.
Cast and Release
The principal cast includes AnnaClare Hicks as Emily, Charlie Farrell as Robert, Milly Sanders as Melissa, and Matt Munroe as Sean. Cairo Smith served as director, writer, and producer. Michelle Shundo, Christopher Corey Smith, and Rand Vossler are also credited as producers, with Askari Productions and No Sudden Movies as production companies.
The film premiered at Dances With Films in Los Angeles in 2022 and later screened at festivals including the SoHo International Film Festival. It was released to cable and digital VOD on November 10, 2023.