The amnesiac format in psychological thrillers is always a fun one: an unreliable narrator thrown into a dizzying world where they don’t know who to trust, not even themselves, as secrets are slowly uncovered. In 2022, Apple TV gave us another rendition of this classic trope that was sorely overlooked, even though it had all the thrills and charm of the genre. Surfaceis a perfect escapist weekend binge, one that’ll have you playing the guessing game right until the end while you are enthralled by the lavish costumes and designs of San Francisco high society. On top of that, with psychological thriller veteran Gugu Mbatha-Raw leading the way, we’re in safe hands as we enter this emotional and paranoid spiral.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw Is a Quietly Fierce Lead in ‘Surface’
The amnesiac in question in Surface is Sophie (Mbatha-Raw), a woman who sustains a head injury after a suicide attempt and returns to her world of luxury without any memories. She lives with her husband James (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), who tries to coax Sophie back into their picturesque life with the help of her best friend Caroline (Ari Graynor). Though we already question if we can trust their claims and motivations. Things become more complicated when Sophie meets undercover cop Baden (Stephan James), who insists that she cannot trust her husband. Soon enough, she also realizes that she has some secrets of her own, deepening the cracks of the perfect picture that everyone claims to be her life. But the most damning piece of evidence that proves not everything is as it seems is voiced by Sophie herself: “If my life was so perfect, why did I try to end it?”
Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky
Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you’re not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.
🏕️Jason
🔪Michael
💤Freddy
🎈Pennywise
🪆Chucky
01
Something feels wrong. You can’t explain it — you just know. What do you do? First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty.
02
Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong? Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.
03
What is your most reliable survival asset? Every survivor has a quality the villain didn’t account for. What’s yours?
04
What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through? Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it.
05
You’re with a group when things start going wrong. What’s your role? Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn’t.
06
What’s the horror movie mistake you’re most likely to make? Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.
07
What’s your best weapon against something that can’t be stopped by conventional means? Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.
08
It’s the final scene. You’re the last one standing. How did you make it? The final survivor always has a reason. What’s yours?
Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated Your Best Chance Is Against…
Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.
Camp Crystal Lake · Friday the 13th
Jason Voorhees
Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.
He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn’t strategise, doesn’t adapt, doesn’t outsmart. He simply pursues.
Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.
Haddonfield, Illinois · Halloween
Michael Myers
Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it’s too late for anyone who isn’t paying close enough attention.
But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
Michael’s power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.
Elm Street · A Nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy Krueger
Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.
You are harder to destabilise than most. You’ve faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven’t looked away.
The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
Freddy’s greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.
Derry, Maine · It
Pennywise
Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.
The Losers Club didn’t survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise’s worst nightmare.
It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.
Chicago · Child’s Play
Chucky
Chucky’s greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it’s already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.
You don’t have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.
Playing an amnesiac is always a fun challenge for actors: balancing being a blank slate with the hints of the character’s instincts and personality underneath. In Surface, Mbatha-Raw masters the tight-rope act and is reason enough to dive into the depths of deception and betrayal of Sophie’s life. She mixes the effortless charisma we saw in “San Junipero” in Black Mirror, with the deadpanned suspicion in her role from The Girl Before, becoming a compelling lead we enjoy following down the rabbit hole. As Sophie overhears suspicious conversations and goes running around the area to clear her mind, there’s an innate fierceness that simmers beneath her surface of confusion, distrust, and vulnerability. It’s a quiet ferocity that drives the series forward, making the character easy to root for as she peels back the layers of her flashy life.
‘Surface’ Is the Perfect Psychological Thriller for Escapism
Mbatha-Raw’s persevering performance is what guides us through a show that is pure escapism, one that exists for genre thrills wrapped in the facade of luxury. In the vein of Big Little Lies, the sets scream wealth, and the costumes are devastatingly gorgeous, but this is all drenched in dark hues that suggest something sinister is going on, which is undoubtedly true. As such, the escapism stems from the timeless experience of watching rich people be miserable and bored while draped in the sinful fruits of their wealth. Combining extravagance with a distinct sense of paranoia and distrust results in an atmosphere that is charged and palpable, radiating right off the screen to include viewers in the turmoil.
Though the show has been criticized for being a tad too much of a slow-burn, this atmosphere and the visuals that come alongside it make the methodical unraveling worth it. Our amateur sleuth flits between her untrustworthy psyche and the elusive pieces of evidence she comes across, making every revelation feel earned as it arrives with a truckload of emotional weight. It’s especially enthralling when Sophie digs into her own secrets, which is where Mbatha-Raw’s performance excels, as the character is confronted with the aspects of her own identity that she has forgotten. As the plot slowly twists and turns towards the dark truth, we’re submerged in Sophie’s own internal struggles, the genre thrills, and the contrast of the surrounding opulence. Mbatha-Raw guides us through her character’s fractured psychological state, as she dissects the veneer of wealth around her, making for a twisty and escapist thriller that is utterly easy to consume.
