Unit 234 – Film Review

Unit 234 is a taut, small-scale action thriller that finds its strength in atmosphere, pace, and Isabelle Fuhrman’s committed central performance. Best known for romantic fare like Hitch and Sweet Home Alabama, director Andy Tennant makes a surprising pivot into the gritty, single-location survival thriller genre. With a premise built for maximum tension — a woman trapped overnight in a remote storage facility with a man missing a kidney and a gang on her tail — the film delivers on its promise of suspense and claustrophobia, even if it never quite rises above its genre limitations.

Set almost entirely within the dimly-lit confines of a sprawling storage complex, Unit 234 wastes little time establishing the stakes. Laurie Saltair (Fuhrman), who’s trying to keep her family’s business afloat, is alone on the night shift when she hears suspicious noises and stumbles upon Unit 234 — inside, she finds a man chained to a gurney, unconscious and clearly the victim of a violent crime. That man is Clayton (Jack Huston), and as he wakes, confused and traumatized, Laurie becomes an unwilling participant in a larger, more dangerous web of criminal activity.

The film’s hook — Clayton is missing a kidney and someone wants him back — is just bonkers enough to grab attention, and Tennant wisely leans into the pulpiness of the premise. Derek Steiner’s script keeps things moving at a brisk pace, peppering in just enough character development to keep Laurie and Clayton from feeling like stock figures. Still, the plot unfolds in expected beats, rarely straying from genre convention. A mysterious stranger appears. The phone lines go dead. The power goes out. Reinforcements are not coming. And the bad guys? They’re not just bad — they’re ruthless.

Don Johnson brings an old-school, Southern-fried menace to Jules, the leader of the gang searching for Clayton. It’s a role that trades heavily on his charisma and weathered authority — part charmer, part cold-blooded fixer. Johnson isn’t given much depth to work with, but he elevates the screen every time he appears, turning cliché into credibility. Jack Huston, meanwhile, strikes the right balance between sympathetic and ambiguous. Is Clayton a victim, or is there more to his story than he’s letting on? That tension sustains a good chunk of the film’s second act, though the eventual reveal is somewhat underwhelming.

But the film belongs to Fuhrman, who continues to make a compelling case for herself as a genre lead. Following her chilling return in Orphan: First Kill, Fuhrman once again plays a character caught between terror and tenacity. As Laurie, she’s resourceful without being unbelievable, vulnerable without being passive. The script gives her a modicum of backstory — a family burden, a fractured relationship, and a desperate financial situation — but it’s Fuhrman’s performance that adds gravity. Her eyes communicate fear, resolve, and exhaustion, often within the same frame. Without her, Unit 234 would feel like a much emptier exercise in tension.

Visually, the film makes excellent use of its confined setting. Cinematographer John Pardue creates a shadowy, neon-glazed atmosphere that complements the story’s themes of isolation and entrapment. The cavernous, echoing halls of the storage facility become a labyrinth of danger, with locked units hiding both secrets and weapons. It’s a clever use of space, and Tennant leans into it with confident direction. Every clanking door and flickering fluorescent light feels like a harbinger of violence.

The action, when it arrives, is grounded and brutal. Laurie is not an action hero, and her confrontations are messy, improvised, and desperate. A standout sequence involves her using an air duct and an improvised trap to gain the upper hand — a reminder that resourcefulness can be just as compelling as brute force. However, there’s a lack of escalation in the third act. After a series of high-stress encounters, the climax feels rushed and slightly deflated, with emotional beats that don’t quite land as hard as they should.

Narratively, Unit 234 flirts with deeper themes — organ trafficking, autonomy, and the power dynamics of survival — but doesn’t explore them beyond their surface utility. Clayton’s missing kidney is a grotesque metaphor for vulnerability, but the film doesn’t lean into the body horror aspect as strongly as it could have. Similarly, the implications of what’s happening — that a gang is illegally harvesting organs and trafficking victims — are disturbing, but only used as a vehicle for suspense, not commentary.

The biggest drawback is that while the film is consistently competent, it doesn’t innovate. For all its intensity and solid performances, Unit 234 doesn’t carve a new path in the survival thriller genre. It walks in the footsteps of films like Panic Room, The Call, and 10 Cloverfield Lane, but rarely surprises or subverts expectations. What you see in the trailer is essentially what you get.

That said, for genre fans, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Unit 234 delivers exactly what it promises — an isolated setting, an escalating threat, and a determined protagonist pushed to her limits. Tennant’s direction is efficient, the runtime lean (a welcome 95 minutes), and the momentum rarely sags. For a film with such a pulpy premise, restraint is key, and Unit 234 maintains just enough credibility to keep audiences engaged.

Unit 234 is a solid, contained thriller that benefits from strong performances, tight direction, and a satisfyingly eerie atmosphere. It never quite escapes the shadows of its influences or fully explores its darker thematic potential, but Isabelle Fuhrman’s commanding presence makes the ride worth taking. It’s not a game-changer, but for a late-night watch, it gets the job done.